Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Actuguinee.org
Published on 2024-03-15 17:10:56
In the night of Thursday, March 14, several neighborhoods in the Guinean capital experienced unrest as most of the city was in darkness. Angry young people barricaded roads, threw stones, and burned tires to demand the immediate return of electricity. In response, security forces came out to disperse the protesters, using tear gas and even live ammunition in some places.
During these clashes between protesters and law enforcement, Cé Benoît Solomy, an artist and shop owner in Lambagni, near the KPC intersection, close to the TMI station, reportedly aged 25, married and father of 3 children, was shot in the chest around 9pm and died on the spot. Cé Remy Keléba, who was present at the scene on Friday, recounted what he knew of the incident.
“I was in Tombolia when I got a call telling me that my friend had been shot in the chest and died on the spot. So, this morning, I came and asked what happened? They told me he had gone to get something to eat when he was shot in the chest. According to information, my friend was not a protester. He was an artist, but his father had opened a shop for him in Lambanyi, at the KPC intersection. He was married and a father of three children, but his wife is currently in the village. So, I take this opportunity to tell the government to protect us from these killings being carried out by our security forces,” explained the victim’s friend.
According to Antoine Pellamy, a close associate of the victim, the family does not know the whereabouts of the body at the moment. He mentioned that when they arrived on the scene at night, the body was still there. “The deceased was an artist, he used to sing with my younger brother. Yesterday, starting from 9pm, a villager called me and said, ‘my friend Benoît has had something there, I went to their place and found people crying.'”
“I told him I was not informed, he said, ‘You need to find out.’ I also started calling the young people in the village, they told me Benoît was in his shop, he went out to get food on the road and a man in uniform shot him, he died on the spot. When we came to recover the body, the young people said that without the presence of the neighborhood chief, the body would not be moved. We waited for a long time, the gendarmerie pick-ups arrived, they started firing tear gas.”
“We all dispersed and upon our return, we could not find the body. We are still searching for the body,” he recounted, before appealing to the authorities. “For now, we are looking for the body first, we have nothing to say until we see the body. No idea, our parents went to Ignace Deen to check there. My final plea, I ask the government to help us find the body, because we were told that it was BAC6 who was there.”
It should be noted that in recent days, in Kindia as well, following the same electricity issue, two people were killed, several injured, and people were arrested.
By Christine Finda Kamano on Mediaguinee.
Read the original article(French) on Actu Guinea
