After nationwide clashes left at least 23 dead in two days, Guinean President Lansana Conte faces a general strike as opposition to his two-decade old rule mounts.
Many international airlines canceled flights to the west African nation because of the mounting troubles which have now left more than 80 dead since the start of the year.
Gunfire was heard and a thick column of smoke rose over the capital, Conakry, late on Sunday as inhabitants went on the rampage.
Witnesses said police shot dead a man in the suburb of Ratoma as they chased looters through the streets and youths threw stones at them from behind barricades.
The local population also killed three suspected looters in the same area -- home to one of Conte's four wives, witnesses said.
In Kankan, 600km east of Conakry, several thousand youths took to the streets shouting slogans hostile to Conte and Eugene Camara, his recent choice to become prime minister. A guard to the local governor was killed, witnesses said.
Thousands of people also demonstrated in the central town of Dabola, where government buildings were ransacked and the mayor's home was set on fire, witnesses said.
On Saturday, at least 18 people were killed across the country, including a soldier lynched by a mob in Kankan after he had shot dead two protesters. His body was then set on fire.
Three people were killed in the Conakry suburbs, a shopkeeper was shot dead by police as he guarded his business, seven people were killed in the western city of Kindia, two in the central town of Faranah and two others in Lola in the south.
Air France canceled Paris-Conakry flights on Saturday and Sunday. Air Senegal International also called off a Dakar-Conakry flight. Both companies cited security fears.
Unions on Sunday threw their weight behind opposition calls for the ailing 72 year old president to step down. They have called a general strike.
"We call simply and purely for him [Conte] to go," said Ibrahim Fofana, one of the leaders of the trade union confederation. "The confederation only portrays the people's wishes."
The latest clashes were sparked by the nomination of Camara as prime minister. The opposition has said he is too close to Conte, who seized power in a coup 23 years ago following the death of founding president Sekou Toure.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS