# Camp Boiro Political Prison (c. 1960)

URL: https://allhistories.com/guinea/timeline/1960-camp-boiro-political-prison
Location: Conakry, Guinea
Themes: main-event

From the first years of independence, Sékou Touré's single-party state presented itself as permanently threatened by 'plots' organised by imperialists, neighbouring governments and internal enemies. Each announced conspiracy was followed by arrests, show trials and purges, and the regime needed a place to hold and break its prisoners. The Camp Camayenne barracks in central Conakry, a former colonial Republican Guard base, was converted into a political prison with the help of Czechoslovak advisers; in 1969 it was renamed Camp Mamadou Boiro after a police commissioner killed during a prisoner transfer. Detainees, including ministers, ambassadors, soldiers, teachers, traders and clergy, were held in cramped cells, tortured to extract broadcast 'confessions', and frequently subjected to the diète noire, total deprivation of food and water until death. Many were shot or hanged without trial. Estimates of those who died at Camp Boiro and in the wider network of camps range from about 5,000 to as many as 50,000. Survivors' memoirs, such as Jean-Paul Alata's Prison d'Afrique (1976), exposed its horrors abroad. After Touré's death in 1984 the camp was opened and its prisoners freed; victims' associations have campaigned ever since for a memorial and official recognition. At this point in the timeline (1960–1984), the President of the Republic of Guinea was Ahmed Sékou Touré (2 October 1958 – 26 March 1984).

## Why it matters
Camp Boiro became the symbol of the First Republic's repression and remains central to Guinea's memory of the Touré era.

Ruler at the Time: [Ahmed Sékou Touré](https://allhistories.com/guinea/rulers/ahmed-sekou-toure)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Camp Boiro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Boiro)
- [Human Rights Watch — Guinea](https://www.hrw.org/africa/guinea)
- [Wikipedia — Sékou Touré'S First Republic (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_S%C3%A9kou_Tour%C3%A9)