- Last Updated
- November 29, 2022
- 1:56 pm
Guinea
On 22 December 2008, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara took power in a bloodless coup, which ended fifty years of rule characterised by undemocratic governance and the systematic violation of human rights under two successive presidents, Ahmed Sékou Touré (1958 to 1984) and Lansana Condé (1984 to 2008). Despite his promise to introduce democratic reforms, Dadis Camara instead entrenched military rule, committed widespread human rights violations, and failed to hold long-promised elections.
On 28 September 2009, tens of thousands of oppositions supporters gathered in Conakry Stadium: at 11:30 am, several hundred members of the security forces entered the stadium and opened fire on the crowd, killing at least 156 people and injuring or sexually assaulting more than 1400 others.1 In the days that followed, security forces continued to commit rape, murder and looting in neighbourhoods primarily populated by opposition supporters. The Guinean authorities and security forces engaged in a cover-up of the massacre, destroying evidence and removing bodies.2