Geneva: The United Nations said on Friday it was "extremely worried" about the fate of two Guinea opposition leaders reportedly tortured in custody, urging the ruling junta to release them.
Oumar Sylla, widely known as Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah -- two leaders of a citizens' collective calling for a return to civilian rule -- were arrested on July 9, according to their families and movement.
Slammed by their pro-democracy movement as a "kidnapping", their arrests have provoked a growing international outcry.
They are among a long list of opposition figures detained in the troubled West African country since the military seized power in September 2021.
The UN's human rights office said that the lack of information about their fate since they went missing raised "concerns about arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance".
It had "received reports indicating that they were subjected to acts of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment", rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said.
"We urge the transitional authorities in Guinea to immediately and unconditionally release the two activists, unless formally charged in accordance with established judicial procedure," Al-Kheetan added.
On Thursday, lawyers for the activists wrote to the Hague-based International Criminal Court, saying they were fearful for Sylla and Bah's lives.
While acknowledging "persistent reports of kidnappings", the Guinean public prosecutor's office on Wednesday said that authorities had not arrested Sylla or Bah.
But it said that the pair were not being held in any jail -- which the opposition says means they are being held incommunicado.
Sylla and Bah's political movement, the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), said the two men had been arrested by security forces and soldiers from elite units.
They were then allegedly taken to the military police's judicial investigations department before later being held on the island of Kassa off the coast near the capital Conakry.
The FNDC was at the forefront of protests against former president Alpha Conde, who was ousted in a military coup in 2021.
The group is one of Guinea's last opposition voices trying to mobilise support for a return to civilian rule in the impoverished West African country with a turbulent political history.
Authorities dissolved the movement in 2022 after banning all demonstrations.
