January 2020. On the morning of 14 November last year, Abdourahmane Diallo set out on his motorcycle taxi along the pothole-laden roads of Conakry, the bustling capital of Guinea. By nightfall he was dead. His family said the 16-year-old orphan was shot in the ear by police who were targeting opposition supporters in the Bomboly neighbourhood where the Diallos live. With blood pouring from the wound, Diallo was shuffled between government hospitals, family members said. One hospital said it had no capacity for new patients, another said it had no equipment to treat him. He died that evening. “We do not blame God because he only takes back what is his but we do not forgive those who did this,” said Diallo’s uncle Boubacar Diallo, a petty goods merchant. “[We pray] that those who shot him are shot too.” Guinea’s president, Alpha Condé, has been in power since the country’s first democratic elections in 2010, winning a second five-year term four years ago. Under the constitution, a president can serve two five-year terms. But ahead of this year’s election, government officials and allies of Condé have been dropping hints about amending the constitution or writing a new one to let him stand again.
Jan 2020. Demonstrations in the Capital of Guinea
