Guinea Junta Accused of Kidnapping Reggae Singer Elie Kamano’s Children
Elie Kamano says armed men took his children from his Conakry home, a claim that has intensified alarm over Guinea’s widening crackdown on critics’ families.
Reggae singer Elie Kamano has accused Guinea’s military junta of crossing a brutal line by taking his children in the middle of the night. Kamano said armed men broke into his home in Conakry around 4 a.m. on November 16, 2025, and removed two of his sons, both minors, in what he described as an abduction tied to his criticism of the country’s rulers.
The United Nations Human Rights Office later said the raid also swept up two nephews, each under 18, and an adult cousin. Only the youngest child, who is 7, had been released when the UN issued its statement, leaving the rest of the family missing and deepening fears that the case fits a wider pattern of punishment aimed at relatives of outspoken opponents.
For reggae readers, the significance reaches beyond one artist’s family. Kamano is being cast as another voice from a scene long associated with political pressure, and the allegations against Guinea’s junta show how dissent can spill from stage and microphone into the home. The issue is not only whether critics are silenced, but whether their children and relatives are now being used as leverage.
The UN Human Rights Office called the episode a deeply alarming apparent enforced disappearance and urged authorities to secure the immediate and safe return of the relatives and launch a prompt, thorough, impartial investigation. Rights groups in Guinea, including the OGDH, have also demanded an urgent inquiry into the disappearances.
The case comes against the backdrop of Mamadi Doumbouya’s rule after his 2021 coup, which has been marked by growing concern over repression, intimidation and disappearances. Recent reporting has warned that relatives of opponents and activists are increasingly being targeted in Guinea, a shift that makes Kamano’s accusation especially disturbing. Jeune Afrique reported on April 18, 2026, that family members of regime opponents are now being subjected to abductions and forced disappearances as part of what it described as an intimidation strategy.
Kamano’s accusation has turned a reggae artist’s private grief into a public test of how far Guinea’s authorities are willing to go. If the allegations are borne out, the message to the country’s artists, activists and critics is chilling: speaking out may now carry a cost measured in family members, not just careers.
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