Guinea: relatives of journalists in exile persecuted by the authorities

"Arresting a father to get to his son is neither an act of justice nor an act of courage; it is turning an elderly man into a means of exerting pressure." In an open letter published on 27 July 2026, journalist Mamoudou Babila Keïta, co-founder of the news website Inquisiteur.net, denounced the disappearance of his father, 76-year-old Elhadj Adama Keïta, who has been missing since 29 September 2025. Nearly four months after this public appeal, there has been no sign of life from him.

On the day he was abducted, several men in two unregistered 4x4 vehicles went to the elderly man's home in N'Zérékoré, a city in south-eastern Guinea, before taking him to an unknown destination. He was reportedly then brought to the capital, Conakry, before disappearing. Despite an investigation launched by the authorities, no information has emerged that could help locate him. His son is adamant that his father was abducted in an attempt to silence his work.

Forced into exile in July 2024 following an attempted abduction in the eastern city of Kankan, Mamoudou Babila Keïta says he is constantly subjected to threats and online harassment through hateful voice messages and attacks by fake online accounts. For his own safety, he says he rarely goes out and refuses to disclose his whereabouts, even to fellow journalists. "Today I am in the north, tomorrow I am in the south. I trust no one," he says, adding bitterly: "I am forced to disappear."

Government spokesperson Faya François Bourouno, who is also Minister of Public Administration and Civil Service Modernisation, and deputy spokesperson Moussa Moïse Sylla, who is also Minister of Culture, Tourism and Handicrafts, did not respond to RSF's requests for comment.

"They constantly threaten to kidnap my mother"

Other Guinean journalists in exile have told RSF about the pressure being exerted on their families. One of them, who has been living in France since 2024 and requested anonymity for security reasons, detailed threats against his wife and children: "People close to the ruling party, most likely members of the military, called my wife just after I left and threatened to track down my family and make them pay. I asked her to change her phone number." The journalist regularly receives anonymous calls on his Guinean phone number.

Another journalist, also in exile since 2024, told RSF that contacts within the intelligence services had alerted him to discussions about the possibility of "kidnapping [his] mother […] as they did with Babila" in order to force him to stop his investigations. "It is their last card to play. They think that if they kidnap my mother, I will keep quiet," he said.

Journalists receive threats even outside their home country. Abdoulaye Oumou Sow, founder of the news website Kouma Media - which was suspended in Guinea by the authorities in January 2026 - and former spokesperson for the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), a Guinean civic movement that notably called for a return to constitutional order, has been living in exile in France since April 2023 to escape the pressure he was facing. As early as June 2024, he was targeted again when an anonymous individual called him: "He detailed all my movements around Paris, the two restaurants where I had eaten with contacts, and told me to keep quiet on social media or I would see the consequences." He filed a complaint with the French police, but the perpetrator was never identified.

More recently, investigations by his media outlet revealing deadly clashes between military units in Sonfonia, a district of Conakry, and the existence of a mass grave near the special forces camp in Forécariah, in south-western Guinea, have prompted further threats through anonymous calls and messages. In Paris, some participants at a private gathering of young Guineans even refused to be photographed alongside him for fear of reprisals when they returned to Guinea.

Exile as the only alternative

Since the National Committee for Rally and Development (CNRD) came to power, exile has become the only alternative for many Guinean journalists. The founder of the online newspaper Dépêche Guinée, Abdoul Latif Diallo, who also faced threats under the previous regime, says he was summoned to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DPJ) eight times between 2021 and 2024. In January 2024, following an investigation into the freezing of Guinean gold reserves in Dubai involving senior state officials, he was suspended from working for six months, while his media outlet was suspended for nine months by the media regulator, the High Authority for Communication (HAC), without a prior hearing. After being warned in August 2024 that a military unit had been ordered to arrest him, he narrowly managed to leave his home and flee to the United States.

Meanwhile, the relatives of Habib Marouane Camara, head of the news website Le Révélateur 224, have still heard nothing since his abduction in Conakry on 3 December 2024. Faced with the Guinean authorities' inaction despite repeated appeals, RSF referred the case to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in July 2025, seven months after his abduction, urging it to do everything in its power to obtain information about his fate.

Reporting from abroad

Despite their fears for their relatives, journalists in exile continue to cover current affairs in Guinea. "Those who are still in the country can no longer work […] for fear of disappearing or going to prison. It is those of us in exile who are writing and speaking out. That is why I cannot give up this profession," says Abdoul Latif Diallo. "If we stop, they will have won," says Abdoulaye Oumou Sow.

These accounts come against a backdrop of repression of the independent press in Guinea since the September 2021 coup, including arrests, prosecutions and threats against journalists, media suspensions and closures, as well as administrative restrictions targeting independent media.

Guinea ranks 111th out of 180 countries and territories in RSF's 2026 World Press Freedom Index.