By Alpha Abu
The Information/Attaché at the Sierra Leone Embassy in Conakry, Guinea , Umaru Sitta Turay has said that the twenty- two young Sierra Leonean men detained by the Guinean authorities have legal representation and that efforts were being made to secure their release.
Speaking to Politico, the diplomat said the men were supposedly trying to make their way to Europe through the Sahel Region, and across the Mediterranean, in a perilous way of travel known as “Temple-run”, when they were arrested. He explained of how the men reportedly hired commercial bikers to take them across remote and discreet border crossing points along the two countries’ frontier, after the authorities in Conakry closed their country’s main borders with Sierra Leone and Senegal, in the wake of tension ahead of Guinea’s presidential elections.
The Guinean authorities had at the time spoken of alleged plans from outside, to destabilise the country, and according to Turay, the bikers drove the Sierra Leoneans straight to the Police stations, apparently acting on their government’s call for civil security vigilance.
He stated that Embassy officials led by the Ambassador, Alimamy H. Bangura have constantly engaged Guinea’s Justice Ministry officials and visited the men in prison to make sure they were not maltreated. He dispelled social media accounts of the detainees being neglected by the Embassy, and said officials even went to see their prison cells which were relatively not as deplorable as one could imagine.
The information attaché also disclosed at some point the detainees were given access to medical examination and provided with treatment for mostly malaria, through the efforts of the Ambassador and his team. He maintained that they will continue to engage the Guineans for the release of the young men.
He asserted the importance of maintaining the long lasting relationship between Sierra Leone and Guinea, which he said cannot be jeopardised by people who wanted to pass through Guinea surreptitiously, even though the country’s borders were closed at the time of the electioneering period. He believed the whole issue could be solved “politically and diplomatically” between the two countries. The men have been in detention for 8 months now, having been accused of illegally entering Guinea.
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