Hardship protest claim two lives in Guinea Conakry after clash with police

Two people are reportedly killed in one Conakry’s suburbs after protesters over hardship clashed with the country’s police on Monday.

Officially, though, the government is yet to say anything even as at Tuesday.

The families and medical sources said the killing happened as result of a national strike that has paralyzed the city and disrupted some mining operations.

The mother of 18-year-old student Mamady Keïta told Reuters her son had died after being shot in the chest in the Sonfonia district. Motorbike taxi driver Ibrahima Touré, 21, also died from a bullet wound after clashes with security forces in another district, his father said.

A hospital source confirmed both deaths.

Guinea is the world’s second-largest bauxite producer. Traders on Monday said alumina prices in China were trading higher due to the strike, but the impact was limited for now due to Chinese inventories

Guinea strike, according to reports, has its root in growing cost of living.

An umbrella group for multiple workers’ unions asked for lowering of food prices, the lifting of internet restrictions, and the application of a wage deal reached with the government in November.

There has been no official response from the government, which was set up by a military junta that seized power in a 2021 coup. It has quashed recurring anti-government protests, sometimes violently, in the last few years.

Similar trend is happening in other country’s of West Africa.

Nigeria’s labour union entered day two of their strike asking for the country’s government to increase wages.

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