Camp Boiro
| Camp Boiro | |
|---|---|
 Camp Boiro
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| Coordinates: 9°32′13″N 13°41′08″W / 9.53694°N 13.68556°WCoordinates: 9°32′13″N 13°41′08″W / 9.53694°N 13.68556°W | |
| Country |
 Guinea
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| Region | Conakry Region |
Camp Boiro or Camp Mamadou Boiro (1960 – 1984) is a defunct Guinean concentration camp within Conakry city. During the regime of President Ahmed Sékou Touré, thousands of political opponents were imprisoned at the camp. It has been estimated that almost 5,000 people were executed or died from torture or starvation at the camp. According to other estimates, the number of victims was ten times higher: 50,000.
Sékou Touré became president of Guinea when the country gained independence from France in 1958. Over the years that followed, his regime became increasingly repressive, persecuting opposition leaders and dissidents from within the ruling Guinean Democratic Party (PDG). The camp, situated in the center of Conakry, was originally called Camp Camyenne. It housed the Republican Guard under French colonial rule. The political prison block in the camp was constructed with assistance from the Czechoslovak government. In 1961 the commandant had the windows reduced in size, since they were too large for condemned men. The camp was renamed Camp Mamadou Boiro in 1969 in honor of a police commissioner who had been thrown from a helicopter in which he was transporting prisoners from Labé to Conakry.
The camp was used to dispose of Touré's opponents. Achkar Marof, actor and former Guinean ambassador to the United Nations, was recalled to Guinea in 1968, arrested and jailed at Camp Boiro. He briefly gained his freedom in the 1970 coup attempt. His family learned in 1985 that he had been shot on 26 January 1971. The so-called Labé plot, linked to French imperialism, was uncovered in February 1969. Touré used this plot to purge the army and execute at least 13 people. A total of 87 people were arrested and detained in the camp. Two, Mouctar Diallo and Namory Keïta, died of starvation and dehydration only days after their arrest.Fodéba Keïta, former Minister of Defense, was arrested for alleged complicity in the Labé plot. He was shot after forced starvation on 27 May 1969.
On 21 November 1970, the Portuguese Armed Forces based in the neighbor Portuguese Guinea, assisted by Guinean oppositionists, executed the Operation Green Sea, an amphibious raid against Conakry aimed to achieve several military and political objectives, including the liberation of Portuguese POWs and the attempt to overthrow the Touré regime. They captured Camp Boiro and liberated the prisoners. The camp commandant Siaka Touré managed to hide, but General Lansana Diané, minister of Defense, was captured. He later escaped and took refuge with the ambassador of Algeria. The coup attempt failed, and in the aftermath many opponents of the regime were rounded up and imprisoned in Camp Boiro. On 23 December 1970, the Bishop of Conakry, Raymond-Marie Tchidimbo, was arrested, and subsequently made a "confession". Tchidimbo later wrote a book about his 8-year, 8-month stay at the camp.Alassane Diop, who was Senegalese in origin, a former Minister of Information in Guinea was arrested and held in Camp Boiro for ten years, returning to Senegal after his release.
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