CFFA calls for this eviction process to be immediately suspended and for the interest of Guinean coastal communities to be fully respected in line with Guinea’s international commitments.
Approximately 800 artisanal fishermen, women fish processors and fishmongers working on the landing and processing site of Kouléwondy, in the Kaloum municipality of Conakry are to vacate the area they have been using for a century. Last week, Guinean security forces came on the site without warning and teargassed the workers. The community then contacted the Fisheries and Maritime Economy Minister who responded he was not aware of the situation. Later, the Ministry authorities stated the community had been previously informed and told to vacate the area. The community insists they were never informed.
The authorities have asked the approximately 300 women fish processors to move their activities to another site, which is currently occupied by 350 other women and where the number of smoking kilns is already insufficient. The fishermen were also told to leave but they were given no alternative landing site. Since last Tuesday, the community has been sleeping in their pirogues and on the facilities as bulldozers have started scraping the site.
According to governmental sources, the reason for this eviction is the lease of the land to Hotel Noom, owned by the Mangalis Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the international holding Teyliom, which was built 3 years ago on the peninsula. The land on which the women were working belongs to the state and has been leased to the hotel for a period of 60 years.
Men and women affected by the eviction are now sleeping in their pirogues and facilities at Kouléwondy landing site (in the picture, with Hotel Noom in the background). Photos: Aliou Diallo/REJOPRA
For Beatrice Gorez, CFFA coordinator, depriving artisanal fishermen and women fish processors of their traditional landing and fish processing site will have a detrimental impact on these coastal communities’ livelihoods as well as on food security. Indeed, in Guinea, artisanal fishing and traditional processing provides food for the poorest sections of the population.
“This eviction goes against the the Voluntary Guidelines for securing Small Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication to which Guinea along all FAO member states, subscribed.”
BEATRICE GOREZ, Coordinator Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements
Francisco Mari, from Bread for the World, stated that the global Civil Society have accompanied Governments in the last years to respect human rights of communities, for example, in the 2012 FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.
“Governments are now recommended to get always the prior consent of communities and professionals before investments are realized. We condemn this approach of the investor Mangalis Hotel Group, subsidiary of the Teyliom International Holding, of removing people from their traditional working site for the enlargement of their hotel. Our solidarity is with the women and men of Conakry artisanal fishing sector fighting for their rights and we ask the Government of Guinee to come back to mediate and stop any violence.”
FRANCISCO MARI, Bread for the World
Erratum: Following a correspondence with the company owning the hotel at the end of December 2019 and additional information provided by local sources, this article was updated on 15 January 2020. A previous version noted the land had been sold by the Guinean Government to the hotel, when in fact, it has been leased for a period of 60 years. The previous version mentioned also the enlargement of the hotel parking on the evicted plot of land and has been amended taking into account Mangalis Hotel Group statments that their company does not have “any plans to enlarge the parking of the Noom Hotel Conakry in the evicted plot of land”.