Guinea opposition meeting canceled in Senegal

Senegalese authorities stopped a planned Dakar meeting by exiled Guinean opposition members on Thursday, with police citing diplomatic reasons.

The meeting was intended to mark two years since the disappearance of Guinean activists Oumar Sylla, better known as Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah, both critics of authorities in Conakry.

Organiser Alseny Farinta Camara said the hotel due to host the event told him on Wednesday evening it could no longer provide a venue. He said police later contacted him and that he was called on Thursday morning to the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance, where he was told to cancel the meeting “so as not to create a diplomatic issue”.

A Senegalese police spokesperson said that, “for diplomatic reasons”, the foreign ministry contacted the interior ministry to ensure the meeting did not take place.

Ibrahima Diallo, a senior figure in the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution, described the cancellation as “regrettable” at a Paris press conference.