Dozens are reportedly killed in southeastern metropolis after rival followers stormed the pitch following a controversial referee choice.
Clashes and a subsequent stampede have killed dozens of individuals at a soccer sport in Guinea, in accordance with well being officers.
The violence broke out throughout a match on Sunday afternoon in Nzerekore, Guinea’s second-largest metropolis with a inhabitants of 200,000, the place rival followers stormed the sector following a controversial referee choice, reported information web site Guineenews.
The precise variety of casualties is unclear. Well being officers cited by the AFP information company put the dying toll in dozens, with one physician saying it was about 100.
“There are our bodies lined up so far as the attention can see within the hospital,” mentioned the physician. “Others are mendacity on the ground within the hallways. The morgue is full.”
Al Jazeera, nevertheless, couldn’t independently confirm the casualty figures.
Guinea’s Prime Minister Bah Oury condemned the violence and urged calm in a statement posted on X on Sunday. He mentioned the federal government would problem a launch as soon as it gathered all the data.
Police station ablaze
The clashes started after supporters of the visiting crew, Labe, hurled stones on the pitch in anger over a referee name, prompting the police to deploy tear fuel, in accordance with native information web site Mediaguinee.
Later, offended demonstrators additionally vandalised and set fireplace to the Nzerekore police station, Guineenews reported.
“It began with a contested choice by the referee. Then followers invaded the pitch,” a witness instructed AFP.
In line with Mediaguinee, the match was a part of a event organised in honour of Guinea’s army chief, Mamady Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup and has put in himself as president.
Such tournaments have grow to be frequent within the West African nation as Doumbouya eyes a possible run within the presidential election seemingly subsequent yr.
Guinea’s Nationwide Alliance for Alternation and Democracy (ANAD), a coalition of opposition events, blasted the event calling it an try and advance Doumbouya’s “unlawful and inappropriate candidacy”.
Doumbouya seized energy by power in September 2021 overthrowing the federal government of President Alpha Conde, who had positioned the then-colonel accountable for an elite power tasked with defending the pinnacle of state from such coups.
Underneath worldwide strain, he pledged to hand power back to a civilian authorities by the tip of 2024 however has since made clear he is not going to.
The army chief “exceptionally” promoted himself to the rank of lieutenant common in January and final month elevated himself to the rank of military common.
Doumbouya has presided over an ongoing crackdown on dissent, with many opposition leaders detained, introduced earlier than the courts or pressured into exile.
A “transitional constitution” drawn up by the army rulers shortly after the coup mentioned no member of the army might stand in both nationwide or native elections.
However Doumbouya’s backers have just lately expressed their help for his candidacy within the presidential election.
On the finish of September, authorities indicated that elections supposed to revive constitutional order could be held in 2025.
Doumbouya is one among a number of officers who’ve seized energy in West Africa since 2020, together with fellow army leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
