Having left in search of a better future, Fatoumata Binta Bah, a hairdresser by trade, is now living through a true ordeal. The young Guinean woman, detained in a Mauritanian prison, is making a heartfelt plea to President Mamadi Doumbouya to come to the aid of more than a hundred of her compatriots imprisoned with her.

In an interview with VisionGuinée, she recounts leaving the country in the hope of reaching Europe by sea. "I paid 15 million Guinean francs to board a pirogue," she confides.

According to her, nearly 300 people attempting irregular migration departed from the port of Bonfi, in the Matam district of Conakry. Behind this crossing is a well-structured network of smugglers: "The owner of the pirogue lives in Europe. The one who collects the money is in Conakry; his last name is Sacko. I met him through a friend living in Spain. Some paid 15 million Guinean francs, others 20 million," she revealed.

This dream of an Eldorado, however, turned into a nightmare. Fatoumata Binta Bah claims that more than a hundred migrants perished at sea. "There were children, pregnant women... Many died. We didn't even have enough to eat," she testifies, her voice trembling with emotion.

She maintains that, contrary to some rumors, it was not a shipwreck: "We made it to Mauritania. Then some Senegalese people took us to continue towards Spain. They have gris-gris and rosaries: when they hit you with them, you lose consciousness. I saw it with my own eyes," she says, still in shock.

Arrested along with more than a hundred Guineans, she deplores their conditions of detention. "We are in prison in Mauritania. Our only crime is being migrants," she says.

Since their arrest, no official support has arrived. "We have been here for several days. No one has come to see us. It's as if we are not Guineans. There is neither a consul nor an ambassador here," she laments.

Faced with this distress, she makes an urgent appeal to the head of state: "I call on President Mamadi Doumbouya to come and help us. We are also Guineans. We are suffering here. Come and get us," implores Fatoumata Binta Bah.