Dozens were reportedly killed in the southeastern city after rival fans stormed the pitch following a controversial refereeing decision.
Clashes and a subsequent stampede killed dozens at a football game in Guinea, according to health officials.
Violence erupted during Sunday afternoon’s match in Njerekor, Guinea’s second-largest city with a population of 200,000, as rival fans stormed the field after a controversial refereeing decision, news site Guineanews reported.
The exact number of victims is unclear. Health officials quoted by the AFP news agency put the death toll in the dozens, with one doctor saying it was around 100.
“The hospital has bodies lined up as far as the eye can see,” said the doctor. “Others are lying on the floor in the hallway. The morgue is full.”
However, Al Jazeera could not independently verify the casualty figures.
Guinea’s Prime Minister Bah Ouri condemned the violence and called for calm statement Posted on Sunday X He said that the government will release it after collecting all the information.
The police station caught fire
According to local news site Mediaguinee, the clashes started after supporters of the visiting team, Labe, threw stones onto the pitch in anger over a referee’s call.
Later, angry protesters vandalized and set fire to the Njerekor Police Station, Guinea News reported.
“It all started with a disputed decision by the referee. Then the fans invaded the pitch,” a witness told AFP.
According to Mediaguny, the match was part of a tournament organized in honor of Guinean military leader Mamady Doumbouya. seized power In a 2021 coup and installed himself as president.
Such tournaments are common in the West African nation as Doumbouya eyes a potential run in next year’s presidential election.
Guinea’s National Alliance for Alternation and Democracy (ANAD), a coalition of opposition parties, blasted the tournament as an attempt to advance Doumbouya’s “illegal and improper candidacy”.
Doumbouya seized power in September 2021 by toppling the government of President Alpha Conde, who put the then-colonel in charge of an elite force tasked with protecting the head of state from such coups.
Under international pressure, they He promised to give power again to a civilian government by the end of 2024 but has made it clear that they will not.
The military leader was “extraordinarily” promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in January and was elevated to the rank of army general last month.
Doumbouya has led an ongoing crackdown on dissent, with many opposition leaders arrested, brought before the courts or forced into exile.
A “charter of transition” drawn up by the military rulers shortly after the coup stated that no member of the military could stand in national or local elections.
But Doumbouya’s supporters have recently expressed their support for his candidacy in the presidential election.
In late September, officials indicated that elections intended to restore constitutional order would be held in 2025.
Doumbouya is one of several officials who have seized power in West Africa since 2020, along with fellow military leaders in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
