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Ousmane Sylla’s final journey home came not with joyful celebration, but with mourning.
The 21-year-old’s body was flown in a metal coffin from Rome to Conakry, Guinea’s coastal capital.
On a hot day in April, his family collected him from the airport. It was Ramadan, so no one had eaten. But they walked for miles through the crowded streets with more of Sylla’s friends, shouting “justice for Ousmane!” along the way.
Their beloved Ousmane was aways full of cheer, even when he left to join his brother in France, hoping to get a job and send money home. He traveled through the Malian desert to Algeria and through Tunisia, and crossed the Mediterranean on a smuggler’s boat.
In Italy, he found despair. He spent months in a crowded, squalid migrant detention center, unable to contact his family. He died by suicide in February after other detainees said he became depressed and withdrawn.
Mariam Bangoura didn’t know her son was in pain. His sister, Mariama Sylla, blames the Italian government.
“They abandoned him like he’s not a human being,” Mariama Sylla said.
Sylla had scribbled on the wall before he died that he wanted to be returned to Africa, and to his mother.
So they bid him farewell in his home, with love and hopes to see him again.
The casket containing the body of Ousmane Sylla, who died in Italy, is repatriated to Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mariama Sylla, sister of Ousmane Sylla, looks at the vehicle carrying her brother’s casket from the airport in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Family and friends gather at the vehicle carrying the casket of Ousmane Sylla at the airport in Conakry, Guinea, on Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mohammed Sylla, an extended relative of Ousmane Sylla, helps open the casket holding Ousamane’s body at a morgue in Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
The casket of Ousmane Sylla is opened at a morgue in Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Ousmane made his way to Italy through northernn Africa and spent months in a crowded, squalid migrant detention center, unable to contact his family. He died by suicide in February after other detainees said he became depressed and withdrawn. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Family and friends match in the neighborhood to announce the funeral of the Ousmane Sylla ahead of the repatriation of his body in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mariama Sylla, sister of Ousmane Sylla, cries as she recounts memories of her brother at their house at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mariam Bangoura and Allassane Sylla, mother and younger brother of Ousmane Sylla, look at a childhood group photograph of Ousmane, blue shirt, who died in Italy on Feb. 4, 2024, ahead of the return of his body in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mariam Bangoura, mother of the late Ousmane Sylla who died in Italy on Feb. 4, 2024, cries as she recounts memories of him at their house at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Children look at a phone outside the room of the late Ousmane Sylla ahead of his body’s arrival in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Allassane Sylla, left, and Ousmane Holia Diallo, brother and cousin of the late Ousmane Sylla, talk under a shade before the return of Sylla’s body in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mourners gather in the house of Ousmane Sylla’s mother to sympathise with her after his burial at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mourners gather at the house of Ousmane Sylla’s mother before her son’s burial at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Children gather at the family home of the late Ousmane Sylla ahead of his body’s arrival at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Mourners leave after the funeral of Ousmane Sylla at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A barber cuts a boy’s hair in the salon where the late Ousmane Sylla and his friends had met in their neighborhood of Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
People carry the casket of Ousmane Sylla from a hearse to a mosque at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
The casket of Ousmane Sylla sits beside a mosque ahead of his final funeral prayer at Matoto Bonagui, a suburb of Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Traffic travels along a street in Conakry, Guinea, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Traffic travels along a street in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
A girl looks on in the family home of the late Ousmane Sylla ahead of his body’s arrival in Conakry, Guinea, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
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