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