A coalition of 20 African civil society organisations has called for an independent investigation after six unidentified male bodies were discovered in a mass grave in Guinea, raising fresh alarm over human rights conditions under the country's military government.

Local men gathering firewood stumbled upon the bodies on August 24 in the village of Alassoya, located in the Forecariah administrative prefecture in Lower Guinea, a coastal region southwest of the capital Conakry. The victims were found bound and blindfolded. Guinea's Armed Forces confirmed the discovery and announced that the bodies had been transported to a hospital in Forecariah for identification, adding that "all measures were being taken to shed light" on the case and that investigation results would be made public.

The civil society groups — among them the Afrikajom Centre and several branches of Tournons La Page (TLP), a network uniting citizens' movements across more than a dozen African countries — demanded that "all hypotheses be examined as part of an independent, impartial and transparent investigation," conducted with the assistance of national and international forensic experts. The organisations noted that the discovery follows "at least 35 cases of enforced disappearances documented by TLP-Guinea since September 5, 2021," and warned that the circumstances in which the bodies were found raise fears that the victims may have been subjected to extrajudicial or arbitrary executions. France has separately called on Guinean authorities to conduct a transparent inquiry.

The case unfolds against a backdrop of deepening repression since General Mamady Doumbouya seized power in a coup in September 2021. Since then, political parties have been suspended, protests suppressed, and numerous opposition and civil society leaders arrested, sentenced, or driven into exile. Activists have been documented as abducted or disappeared under the military administration. Compounding concerns, another mass grave was reportedly found in the same region of Guinea last year, though investigations into that case have yet to establish the victims' identities or causes of death.

The dual demand — from domestic civil society and international partners — for an independent process reflects a broader distrust of internal accountability mechanisms under Guinea's current governance. Whether the military's promised inquiry will satisfy those calls for transparency remains to be seen.