More than a year after his abduction in Guinea by men in military uniforms, Abdoul Sacko is still dealing with the physical and psychological aftereffects of the torture he endured. Now in exile, this activist, a critic of the Guinean authorities, is one of the few to have regained his freedom, while enforced disappearances are on the rise in his country.

A pall of gloom descended upon Guinea after General Mamadi Doumbouya seized power in a coup in 2021. The phenomenon of kidnapping opponents or their relatives has since become systemic in this West African state, accustomed to authoritarian regimes since its independence from France in 1958.

"I was assaulted, slapped, and had a gun pointed at my head," Abdoul Sacko told AFP in Dakar, Senegal.

Kidnapped from his home on the night of February 19, 2025 in front of his family, the activist explains that he suffered torture sessions in several places in Conakry which he could not identify, being constantly hooded.

His captors subjected him to simulated drownings while asking him if he planned to organize a coup, "why (he) likes to criticize so much, to talk about corruption," recounts this official of the Forum of Social Forces of Guinea, a citizens' movement.

A few hours later, he was released into the bush and found in critical condition about sixty kilometers from Conakry.

His release is an exception in the Guinea of Mamadi Doumbouya.

"In the hands of the State"

"From 2023 until today, we have counted around twenty people who have been victims of enforced disappearances," says Alseny Farinta Camara of the Tournons la Page movement, a civil society organization.

This activist himself escaped an attempted kidnapping in August 2024. He had gone out to run an errand when police officers came to his home. Warned by neighbors, he immediately fled abroad and never returned home.

From Senegal, where he has found refuge, he continues to document human rights violations in Guinea: "We are witnessing arbitrary arrests, torture, abductions and disappearances."

The authorities have always denied any knowledge of these disappearances and the few investigations announced have remained a dead letter, much to the dismay of human rights organizations.

Emblematic cases include Oumar Sylla, alias Foniké Menguè, and Mamadou Billo Bah, members of civil society, who have been missing since July 2024 after being abducted.

"Where are they? They are in the hands of the State. Are they alive? Only the State can answer that," Mr. Sacko says, annoyed.

Having come to power by force in 2021, Mamadi Doumbouya legitimized his power in the eyes of international partners by organizing in December a presidential election tailored for him, without any significant opponent.

After his election, he received congratulations from his partners, with no country or international institution expressing any reservations on the issue of human rights.

Guinea has rejoined the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU), from which it had been excluded after the coup.

"Absolute silence"

By participating in the AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in February, the Guinean leader formalized his return to the international community.

"Mamadi Doumbouya has joined the club of good coup leaders who played by the rules, organized elections and are now legitimate heads of state in the eyes of the international community," emphasizes Franklin Nossiter, analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

The Guinean government announced on Friday evening the dissolution of 40 political parties, including the three main opposition formations, raising concerns among civil society and the political class.

"All these countries that share our democratic values are more concerned today with doing business with the military regime," laments Alseny Farinta Camara.

But the normalization of the regime has not stopped the litany of disappearances in the country: on March 3, the mother and sister of an exiled opponent were abducted from their home by unknown persons before being released on Monday.

With most Guinean opposition members now living in exile, it is their relatives who are now disappearing.

This is particularly the case for the children, aged 16 and 14, of the exiled singer Elie Kamano, or for the 72-year-old father of the journalist Mamoudou Babila Keïta: taken away by unknown people, none have reappeared.

Under the dictatorship of Ahmed Sékou Touré (1958-1984), tens of thousands of political prisoners and ordinary citizens were tortured and killed in the infamous Boiro military internment camp in Conakry.

For Abdoul Sacko, the phenomenon is now worse: "Never in the history of Guinea have we known this situation where men disappear in the absolute silence of the State, without the State taking responsibility."