EMBASSY REFERRAL FOR UNACCOMPANIED MINORS ALPHA AND MALLAM

UNCLAS ACCRA 001391 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR PRM/A E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF SUBJECT: EMBASSY REFERRAL FOR UNACCOMPANIED MINORS ALPHA AND MALLAM FOFANAH ¶1. (SBU) Embassy Accra hereby refers Alpha Amadu Fofanah, who was born on September 8, 1997, in Kabala, Sierra Leone. Alpha was only two years old when the family fled Sierra Leone. The boy's maternal grandfather was a prominent imam and active member of the UNPP political party. Because of this, the family was subject to continual taunting and eventually decided it had to leave the country. The boys left with their father for Liberia, but they later fled to Guinea because of the Liberian civil war. Their father died on August 29, 2006, leaving Alpha and his younger brother Mallam alone in Conakry. ¶2. (SBU) This Embassy referral is for: Alpha Amadu Fofanah, DPOB: 08 SEPT 1997, Kabala, Sierra Leone and his brother: Mallam Osman Fofanah, DPOB: 04 JAN 1999, Kabala, Sierra Leone. ¶3. (SBU) Alpha was only two years old when his family fled Sierra Leone. According to his mother, Salaymatu Bah, the boys' grandfather was a prominent imam who was involved with the UNPP political party. The family was often the subject of taunting. Eventually, they decided it was no longer safe for them to remain in Sierra Leone. ¶4. (SBU) Because the boys were born out of wedlock, Salaymatu's father did not approve of her relationship nor allow his grandsons into his home. So it was that Salaymatu fled into Guinea with her parents and siblings; her boyfriend fled to Liberia with the two boys. Salaymatu's father later told Salaymatu that her boyfriend and two sons had been killed. In reality, the boyfriend had fled from Liberia to the relative safety of Guinea because of the fighting going on in Liberia. ¶5. (SBU) Salaymatu's father eventually passed away, and she was resettled together with her mother and siblings in the U.S. in October 2004. Salaymatu claims that some time in 2006 she learned her boyfriend and two sons were, in fact, alive and living in Guinea. Her attempt to petition for her sons was denied apparently because she had not listed them as immediate relatives on her resettlement papers. Her former boyfriend passed away on August 29, 2006, leaving her sons, now 8 and 9 years old, to fend for themselves in Conakry. ¶6. (SBU) Salaymatu has since conducted DNA testing to prove maternity and has provided evidence that her sons fled Sierra Leone because the family had a well-founded fear of persecution as a result of their political affiliation. BROWN