The situation in Guinea is growing more and more troubling as a labour union strike has degenerated into a mass protest by Guineans from all walks of life demanding the resignation of the diabetic president Lansana Conte.
The situation is so desperate that African Union and ECOWAS delegations will soon be or are already in the Guinean capital,Conakry, to see what could be done to restore calm and normality. Meanwhile thousands of special forces troops from neighbouring Guinea Bissau have crossed the border into Guinea to help the Guinean army protect the border and possibly help avert a coup d’etat.
A Guinean newspaper, Le Diplomate Guinee, reported today that two people were killed and dozens wounded yesterday when security forces at the residence of the speaker of the Guinean parliament, Alhaji Aboubacar Sompare(photo) opened fire when some of the protesters suddenly headed for his home to register their grievances.
The protesters, many of them from the Cosa, Simbaya and Nongo districts of Conakry had intended, according to Le Diplomate, to appeal to Alhaji Sompare to call on the supreme Court to commence impeachment proceedings against Conte. Sompare is former secretary genral of the ruling PUP party.
Conakry is reportedly calm today but the protesters are said to be determined to hit the streets again to ’punish’ Sompare and to force change in the country.A similar mass protest occurred in Guinea last year but Conte managed to quell it.
Photo credit: Le Diplomate Guinee.
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