Dozens of people were killed on Sunday in clashes between fans at a soccer match in Nzerekore, Guinea’s second-largest city, hospital sources said, describing scenes of mass carnage.
“There are bodies lined up as far as the eye can see in the hospital. Others are lying on the floor in the hallways. The morgue is full,” one doctor said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“There are around 100 dead,” he said, with bodies filling the local hospital and morgue.
Photo: Reuters
Another doctor said there were “dozens of dead.”
Videos circulating on social media, which Agence France-Presse was unable to immediately verify, showed scenes of chaos in the street outside the match and numerous bodies lying on the ground.
Angry demonstrators also vandalized and set fire to the Nzerekore police station, witnesses said.
“It all started with a contested decision by the referee. Then fans invaded the pitch,” a witness said, asking that his name be withheld for safety reasons.
Local media said the match was part of a tournament organized in honor of Guinea’s junta leader, Mamadi Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup and has installed himself as president.
Such tournaments have become common in the West African nation, as Doumbouya eyes a potential run in presidential elections expected next year and political alliances form.
Doumbouya seized power by force in September 2021 by overthrowing then-Guinean president Alpha Conde, who had placed the then-colonel in charge of an elite force tasked with protecting the head of state from such coups.
Under international pressure, he pledged to hand power back to a civilian government by the end of this year, but has since made clear he will not.
The military leader “exceptionally” promoted himself to the rank of lieutenant general in January and last month he elevated himself to the rank of army general.
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