Football: Clashes in a stadium kill several people in Guinea

Clashes on Sunday between supporters during a football match left at least dozens dead in N’Zérékoré, in southeastern Guinea, medical sources told AFP.

“There are around a hundred dead. Bodies are lined up as far as the eye can see in the hospital. Others are lying on the floor in the corridors. The morgue is full,” said a doctor at the regional hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “There are dozens of deaths,” said another doctor.

Angry supporters vandalized and set fire to the N’Zérékoré police station, according to witnesses. The government remained silent on Sunday evening about the tragedy.

In videos broadcast on social networks and whose authenticity AFP was unable to verify, we see numerous inert bodies. Other videos circulating on the networks show scenes of great confusion in the streets following the outbreak of clashes.

“It all started from a challenge to a decision by the referee. Supporters then invaded the playing area,” said a witness, speaking on condition of anonymity for his safety.

According to the press, it was a tournament dedicated to the head of the junta, General Mamadi Doumbouya, who came to power after a coup d’état in September 2021 and who has since become president.

Such tournaments have proliferated in recent weeks in Guinea, in what are seen as events in support of Mr. Doumbouya’s possible candidacy in the next presidential election.

The junta had initially committed, under international pressure, to give way to elected civilians before the end of 2024. It has since made it known that it would break its promise.

Several of Mr. Doumbouya’s representatives recently said they were in favor of his candidacy in the next presidential election. But the “transition charter” established by the junta shortly after the coup requires that no member of the junta can run “neither in national nor in local elections”.

The authorities indicated at the end of September that all the votes leading to the return of constitutional order would be held in 2025.

They presented a preliminary draft Constitution at the end of July with the aim of having it voted on by referendum before the end of the year. But no date has yet been set for submitting to the population this text rejected by the main opposition parties and civil society organizations.

The junta seeks to silence all forms of dissent, banning demonstrations and critical media. Many opposition leaders have been arrested, indicted before judges or driven into exile.

At the beginning of July, two leaders of a dissolved citizens’ movement which demanded the return of civilians to power disappeared.