Civil society groups say more than 56 dead In Guinea stadium stampede

Guinean civil society groups on Tuesday said the number of football fans killed in a weekend stadium crush in the southeast was likely much higher than the government's toll of 56.

Dozens died on Sunday in a stampede sparked by contested refereeing decisions, a pitch invasion and the intervention of security forces using tear gas, according to witnesses.

The match in the second city of N'Zerekore was the final of a cup tournament organised in honour of junta chief Mamady Doumbouya, who seized power in a 2021 coup and has installed himself as president.

The military-led government put the provisional death toll at 56.

Doctors told AFP on Sunday that the figure was even higher.

"It is estimated today (Tuesday) that 135 people, most of them children under the age of 18, died" at the stadium in N'Zerekore, a statement from a collective of human rights organisations said, which was read out in the city.

The group said it based its figures on information gathered from hospitals, witnesses, relatives of victims, religious and local leaders and media reports.

The opposition alliance the Living Forces of Guinea (FVG) said in a statement that the crush had killed "around one hundred people".

The High Council of the Diaspora, an organisation of Guineans living abroad, published a statement declaring "300 deaths, most of them young people and teenagers, and hundreds of injured, some seriously".

A senior regional health official contacted by AFP and speaking anonymously so as not to speak on behalf of authorities, stuck to the government's figure.

"They're talking nonsense," he said, referring to the figures put forward elsewhere.

A lack of centralised information and a deliberate or inadvertent lack of transparency makes obtaining precise death tolls from such tragedies in Guinea challenging.