Guinean authorities are being urged to investigate the abduction of journalist Habib Marouane Camara and ensure his safe return.
This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 6 December 2024.
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Guinean authorities to investigate journalist Habib Marouane Camara’s whereabouts and ensure his safety after he was attacked and abducted on Tuesday by men in gendarme uniforms in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, according to local witness.
“It’s been more than three days since armed men abducted journalist Habib Marouane Camara, and we are very concerned about his fate and well-being,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ Africa in New York. “We urge the judicial police to promptly investigate, hold those responsible accountable, and ensure that Camara is returned unharmed without delay.”
On the evening of December 3, 2024, several men in gendarme uniforms stopped Habib Marouane Camara, the administrator of the private online news site Le Révélateur 224, as he drove to meet a businessman in Conakry, according to the news site, which cited local residents who witnessed the scene. The men broke the front windshield of Camara’s car and hit him with batons before taking him to an unknown destination, the site reported.
Salif Béavogui, Camara’s lawyer, said at a press conference that Camara’s whereabouts remained unknown, despite efforts to find him by the prosecutor of the Dixinn community court in Conakry, where Camara lives, and by other law enforcement agencies.
On November 28, Camara posted on Facebook that a “commando was on his heels.” A person close to Camara who declined to be named for security reasons told CPJ that Camara regularly received alerts about a possible kidnapping and he had subsequently made several Facebook posts about a stampede at a local stadium in Conakry that left more than 50 people dead.
Separate from Le Révélateur 224, Camara worked for Djoma media press group, which was included in at least six media that had their licenses revoked by the Guinean authorities in May. Guinea’s media regulator suspended Camara in March for three months after a minister accused him of making defamatory remarks.
Ansoumane Toumani Camara, the Armed Forces Public Relations Director, told CPJ that he had been informed of Camara’s case “only through the press” and he had no information.
CPJ’s calls to government spokesman Ousmane Gaoual Diallo went unanswered.
In a December 6 statement the Dixinn prosecutor said that Camara’s arrest was made outside the law and without an order from the constituted authorities, and an investigation had been launched.
