Two weeks on from the deaths of dozens of people at a football match in Nzérékoré on 1 December, the Guinean authorities must carry out an independent and impartial investigation into the causes of these deaths and guarantee the right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International said today.
“The government’s current silence, coupled with a restriction on internet access in the city, rightly raises suspicions about the authorities’ willingness to take the full measure of the tragedy. Based on credible information, many organizations and witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International have denounced the inaccuracy of the official death toll following the incident at the stadium, arguing that it could be much higher,” said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
Around 135 deaths according to human rights organizations
On 1 December, the government reported a ‘provisional’ death toll of 56, based on information provided by ‘hospital services’, according to a government press release. But on 3 December, human rights organizations based in the Nzérékoré region put forward the figure of 135 dead and around fifty missing in a written statement. People Amnesty International spoke to in Nzérékoré reported that the number of burials since the incident in several of the town’s cemeteries had exceeded the figures announced by the authorities. “In addition, not all the victims had passed through the regional hospital”, said one of the people we spoke to. A member of civil society contacted by Amnesty International on 11 December said: “For the moment, we are maintaining the figure of 135 dead, but we know that it will change. We will be able to give an exact figure once we have completed the ongoing census.”
According to videos and testimonies analysed by Amnesty International, a disputed refereeing decision during the match led to incidents on the field and then in the stands, which resulted in the police using tear gas. This situation led to panic among the thousands of spectators, as a journalist present at the event explained to Amnesty International.
The investigation announced by the authorities will have to determine whether all reasonable efforts were made by the police to limit the risks to the crowd.
Samira Daoud, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa
“The police fired tear gas to make the crowd leave the field. They fired at the field and also at the stands. The crowd took fright and headed for the main gate, which was the only way out”, resulting in a deadly stampede. Another journalist explained that the tear gas fire was redoubled in order to clear the way for the ministers present at the stadium.
“The investigation announced by the authorities will have to determine whether all reasonable efforts were made by the police to limit the risks to the crowd. According to United Nations General Comment 37 on the right to peaceful assembly, tear gas should only be used as a last resort and after a warning, which, according to several witnesses, was not the case during the Nzérékoré incident,” stated Samira Daoud.
Violations of the right to freedom of expression and information
The dissemination of information and videos relating to the tragedy was limited by a restriction on internet access for a week after the incident in Nzérékoré. To date, the authorities have provided no explanation for this cut-off.
Since 2020, successive authorities have regularly cut off the internet. These violations of the right to freedom of expression and access to information have continued since the Comité National du Rassemblement pour le Développement (CNRD) came to power, in defiance of a ruling handed down on 31 October 2023 by the ECOWAS Court of Justice, which found that the internet suspensions in 2020 were contrary to the applicants’ right to information. At the time, the Court of Justice enjoined Guinea to “take all measures to ensure that this situation does not recur in the future”.
Background
According to an official advert broadcast by the authorities to announce the competition, the final of the “Tournament of Refoundation” football match, with a trophy awarded by Lieutenant General Mamadi Doumbouya, was organized “under the high authority of General Amara Camara, Minister and Secretary General of the Presidency”, to “support the republican ideals and values of the CNRD”.
Rallies in support of the CNRD have multiplied in recent months in Guinea, in particular to encourage support for the adoption of a new constitution, despite the ban on “all demonstrations on the public highway likely to compromise social peace and the proper implementation of activities contained in the timetable, (…) for the time being until the election campaign periods”, according to a CNRD press release dated 13 May 2022.
On the other hand, demonstrations hostile to the government are regularly repressed by the security forces in violation of international law, as documented by Amnesty International in its report entitled Wounded youth: Care and justice urgently needed for the victims of unlawful use of force in Guinea.