Days after the Conakry Peace Summit, Guinean authorities have rounded up Sierra Leonean residents, seized their possessions, fired tear gas at them, and dropped them at Pamlap raising urgent questions about whether the ink on the MRU communiqué means anything at all.
The peace communiqué signed in Conakry was barely a week old. The handshakes between presidents had barely dried. And yet, hundreds of Sierra Leoneans are tonight receiving emergency humanitarian assistance at the Pamlap border crossing after being forcibly rounded up from their homes in Guinea, stripped of their possessions, subjected to tear gas, and dumped across the frontier with nothing but the trauma of what they had just endured.
The latest mass deportation of Sierra Leoneans from Guinea occurring in the immediate aftermath of the Mano River Union summit that Presidents Bio, Boakai, and Doumbouya convened to restore brotherly relations has shaken Freetown, outraged civil society, and raised the most fundamental question about the Conakry peace process: was it diplomacy, or was it theatre?
Deportees arriving at Pamlap described scenes of sudden terror. People woken in their homes by Guinean security forces. Possessions phones, money, clothing, documents confiscated before they were bundled into vehicles. Tear gas fired at those who resisted or tried to flee. Long drives to the border in crowded trucks. And then, unceremonious expulsion onto Sierra Leonean soil, with nothing.
“We were treated like animals,” one deportee told this reporter at the border crossing. “I lost everything my clothes, my savings, even my phone. They accused us of crimes but many of us were just trying to survive.”
To understand the full weight of what is happening at Pamlap today, one must understand that this is not Guinea’s first mass expulsion of Sierra Leoneans and that history makes the current wave significantly more alarming.
The streets of Conakry have previously witnessed waves of forced deportations, with Guinean authorities rounding up Sierra Leoneans living in makeshift camps on beaches and in slums, accusing them of loitering, prostitution, theft, and other crimes — forcibly loading them onto trucks and deporting them to the Sierra Leonean border.
In December 2024, the first major wave hit. Sierra Leoneans woke up to unprecedented woes in Conakry when troops and caterpillars moved in and not only destroyed their dwelling places but arrested them and bundled them into military trucks which drove them to the Sierra Leone border towns of Pamelap and Gbalamuya where they were dumped. That crisis sent over 700 people across the border in a single operation. Over 700 Sierra Leoneans woke up one morning to find their slum settlement under attack by Guinean agents. They were bundled into vehicles with whatever little belongings they were able to put together and driven to the border town of Pamalap and told they had no place in Guinea. That action threatened the fantastic bilateral relationship between Sierra Leone and Guinea in a manner never experienced before in the Mano River Union basin.
That December crisis had triggered a diplomatic standoff at the border itself. Sierra Leonean security forces initially refused to allow the deportees in because they wanted to be sure they were indeed Sierra Leoneans a stand-off that could easily have deteriorated into something totally unimaginable. The Guineans closed their border. Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh hurriedly travelled to the border to meet the affected Sierra Leoneans and assess the general situation.
That episode was eventually resolved through intensive diplomacy. Guinea’s foreign minister travelled to Freetown. A fragile understanding was reached. And the two governments along with Liberia went on to sign the Conakry communiqué just days ago pledging renewed respect for each other’s citizens and sovereignty.
Now the deportations have resumed. And this time, there is no excuse of diplomatic ignorance. President Doumbouya signed a peace agreement. His government knows exactly what it is doing.
Guinean authorities have consistently offered the same defence for these operations one that contains elements of legitimate governance wrapped around actions that human rights observers say cross clear legal and moral lines.
Guinea’s public prosecutor has clarified that operations target all individuals residing illegally in affected areas, not exclusively Sierra Leoneans. However, Sierra Leone’s government has remained critical of the mass repatriations, calling for a more diplomatic approach to addressing the issue.
A military officer involved in previous operations told reporters: “This exercise is in consonance with the Sierra Leonean Embassy here in Conakry. It has been discussed diplomatically. These individuals cannot continue to live here under such conditions, engaging in loitering, theft, and other crimes.”
But the claim that the Sierra Leonean Embassy endorsed or was consulted on operations that involved tear-gassing civilians and seizing their personal property has been met with profound scepticism. The manner of the deportations the confiscation of possessions, the use of tear gas, the absence of any legal processing or documentation bears no resemblance to the orderly, rights-respecting deportation procedures that international law requires.
The deportation of Sierra Leoneans from Guinea raises significant questions about adherence to international conventions that protect the rights of individuals, particularly migrants. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol outline the obligations of states to protect individuals fleeing persecution and violence. The forceful deportation of Sierra Leoneans stands in stark contrast to these international commitments. The deportations not only undermine the principles of solidarity and cooperation among African nations but also threaten the stability of the region.
One of the most painful and politically sensitive dimensions of Guinea’s deportation operations is who is being targeted — and who is not.
At the heart of these actions lies a troubling trend: the disproportionate targeting of the Fulbhe, commonly known as Fullas. Their distinct physical features make them easily identifiable, rendering them vulnerable to discrimination. This raises a critical question: why are the Fulbhe consistently singled out when determining who is a Sierra Leonean? Ethnic groups like the Soso and Mandingo share deep kinships and migration patterns across the borders of Sierra Leone, yet they seldom face such scrutiny.
The tragedy carries historical echoes that make it all the more bitter. History is repeating itself. The current government’s actions echo a dark chapter from the 1970s when Fulbhe citizens were similarly rounded up and forcibly sent to Guinea under the pressure of Guinea’s then-dictator Ahmed Sékou Touré. Proof of their nationality was grotesquely reduced to reciting tongue twisters in Themne or Mende languages foreign to many, including native speakers.
The Fullah community in Sierra Leone is not a foreign presence. Fullas make up the third largest tribe in Sierra Leone, and have contributed immensely to the country’s commerce, academia, and religion. Sierra Leone’s own Vice President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, is Fulla a man who himself travelled to the Pamlap border to receive the December 2024 deportees. Both major Sierra Leonean political parties have selected Fulla candidates as running mates during elections.
Yet at the border, in the chaos of roundups and tear gas, these distinctions mean nothing. Guinean security forces are making snap judgments based on appearance and Sierra Leonean citizens are paying the price.
The timing of this latest wave of deportations coming days after the MRU peace summit has provoked fury across Sierra Leone’s political spectrum and civil society.
The Conakry communiqué, signed by Presidents Bio, Boakai, and Doumbouya, explicitly committed all three nations to preserving the rights of border communities, respecting the movement of citizens, and resolving disputes through dialogue rather than unilateral action. Mass deportations involving tear gas and seizure of possessions are not dialogue. They are not consistent with any reasonable interpretation of the agreement just signed.
The bilateral relationship between Sierra Leone and Guinea historically strong, rooted in decades of mutual support during Sierra Leone’s civil war years has now been threatened in a manner never experienced before in the Mano River Union basin. Guinea provided shelter to Sierra Leonean leaders during the country’s darkest years. Countless Sierra Leoneans fled to Guinea during the civil war and were received with generosity. The memory of that history makes the current cruelty feel like a particular kind of betrayal.
The deportation of Sierra Leoneans by Guinea, though severe and humiliating, demands a measured diplomatic response. The government should have sent a high-level delegation to Guinea to investigate the scale and reasoning behind these actions. Guinea is not just any neighbouring country. Historically, it has provided refuge to Sierra Leonean leaders, including runaway presidents, and countless citizens during wars and political upheaval.
At the Pamlap border crossing tonight, the human reality of this crisis is impossible to abstract into policy language. Hundreds of men, women, and children many with no identification documents, no money, and no phone — are receiving assistance from humanitarian workers and community volunteers.
Some have not eaten since being rounded up. Some have injuries from the tear gas and the roughness of the deportation process. Many are asking the same questions: Can they recover their confiscated possessions? What recourse do they have? And what will the Sierra Leone government do?
The Sierra Leone Red Cross and civil society groups have mobilised at the border. Government officials are expected to arrive. But the deeper questions about what Guinea’s actions mean for the Conakry communiqué, about what protections Sierra Leonean migrants can realistically expect in a country whose military has just been praised for its “self-control” at the Sorlumba border — cannot be answered with blankets and water.
First, the Sierra Leone government must formally protest Guinea’s conduct to the MRU Secretariat and ECOWAS citing the deportations as a direct violation of the Conakry communiqué signed just days ago. The peace agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on if one signatory can expel hundreds of the other’s citizens by force within the same week it was signed.
Second, Guinea must be pressed to account for the confiscated possessions of deportees, to immediately cease operations involving tear gas and force against civilian migrants, and to follow internationally recognised procedures for any future repatriation including legal processing, document verification, and coordination with the Sierra Leonean Embassy.
Third, the international community including ECOWAS, the African Union, UNHCR, and IOM must deploy monitors to the Pamlap border and to Conakry’s migrant communities to document what is happening and hold Guinea accountable under the very international frameworks it agreed to uphold when it joined the MRU and the African Union.
The plight of these Sierra Leoneans serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities faced by migrant communities and the need for diplomatic solutions that prioritise human dignity and rights. They deserve more than to be forgotten. They deserve a chance to rebuild their lives with dignity and hope.
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Tonight at Pamlap, hundreds of Sierra Leoneans stripped of everything they owned are trying to understand what happened to them. The least their government and the region can do is make sure it never happens again.
