Guinea: what happened in Nzérékoré during the double ballot on March 22?

Clashes in Conakry, during the double ballot of March 22, 2020 in Guinea. (Illustration image) Credit CELLOU BINANI / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

On March 22, when Guineans were called to go to the polls for the double ballot, violent clashes broke out across the country, causing a dozen deaths in Conakry, and between 10 and 22 in the city of Nzérékoré, in the southeast of the country, known to be a hotbed of ethnic tension.

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A week after electoral violence, the lull returned to Nzérékoré , located in southern Guinea. It was originally the violence linked to the legislative elections and the constitutional referendum organized on Sunday 22 March. However, this violence resulted in inter-community clashes.

The balance sheets diverge. According to the authorities, 10 dead but many more according to several witnesses. Since Wednesday, a certain lull has spread to the capital of the forest region.

When the polling stations closed, the protests of the young people hostile to the referendum would have quickly turned into clashes between the Guzé and Konianké communities, tell witnesses.

Several places of worship have been burned. Shops and houses were burned. At the hospital, dozens of people had sequelae linked to cut-cut injuries or burns, said an informed source.

A curfew and army reinforcements brought an end to the fighting. Only, questions about the fate of the victims remain whole. " Families are in mourning : they came to the morgue and did not find the bodies of their loved ones, " said a civil society activist. Several families fear that the victims were buried at night, in the middle of last week, in a mass grave.

Opposition and civil society demand the opening of an independent investigation. " Only four remains have been buried, " says Mohamed Ismaël Traoré, the region's governor. " We cannot speak of a mass grave, people extrapolate ", continues this official, who has started discussions with each party, to avoid further outbreaks of violence.

A group of people arrived saying they were going to burn the church. We said "no, the problem that is there today is a political problem, it is not a religious problem".

A week later, Nzérékoré comes back to life but remembers

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