Guinea-Bissau calls for political prisoners’ release
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on O Democrata
Political, trade union and civic organisations are asking the Economic Community of West African States to release political prisoners in Guinea-Bissau and reopen party offices. Their manifesto, handed to the organisation’s Senegalese mediation in Dakar, also calls for restrictions on parties, civil society and the media to be lifted, according to O Democrata.
Organisations in Guinea-Bissau have asked the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to intervene to secure the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners still being held in the country. They say their continued detention contravenes court decisions. Their request appears in a manifesto handed over on 23 October 2026 in Dakar to ECOWAS’s Senegalese mediation for Guinea-Bissau.
The signatories are also calling for the reopening of political party offices and the lifting of restrictions targeting parties, civil society organisations and the media. They dispute the impartiality of the Senegalese mediation, which they accuse of being close to the Bissau-Guinean authorities, and are calling for mediation involving political, military and social actors.
The manifesto calls on ECOWAS to act with the military command to restore constitutional and democratic order, in accordance, according to the signatories, with the vote expressed in November 2025. The organisations also threaten to demand individual sanctions against officials who obstruct the return to constitutional normality.
The initiative is part of steps already brought before ECOWAS over Guinea-Bissau’s political crisis. On 4 October, 24 prominent figures called on the West African organisation to restore constitutional order in Guinea-Bissau.
