Guinea’s capital was paralysed on Tuesday, the second day of a general strike, the day before an appeal for a detained union leader whose release protesters are demanding, an AFP correspondent observed.
Schools, shops, markets and roads in Conakry were empty and hospitals offered only skeletal services.
A confederation of the main unions has been on strike since Monday, demanding lower food prices, an end to media censorship, better living conditions for civil servants and the press union activist’s release.
Union spokesman Amadou Diallo told AFP that he was waiting for the “total and complete fulfilment of all (their) demands” before ending the strike. He added that no meeting with the authorities was planned for Tuesday.
The unions made the release of Sekou Jamal Pendessa, secretary general of the Union of Press Professionals of Guinea (SPPG), a precondition for any negotiations with the ruling junta.
Pendessa was arrested at the end of January for “participating in an unauthorised protest” and was on Friday sentenced to six months in prison, three of which were suspended.
The group of lawyers defending him said in a statement that they had been informed on Monday that the appeal would be heard on Wednesday.
The protest was organised in a climate of growing social tension and in the absence of the transitional government, after the junta announced its dissolution last week without providing reasons.
Two people were shot dead during sporadic clashes in Conakry’s suburbs on Monday.
Protests became rare under junta leader General Mamady Doumbouya, who took power in a September 2021 coup, and were subsequently banned in 2022.
The military has arrested several opposition leaders, civil society members and press representatives.
Television channels have also been removed and radio frequencies disrupted.
Under international pressure, the junta promised to hand the reins of government back to elected civilians by the end of 2024, but the opposition has accused it of authoritarian drift.
