General strike resumes in Guinea

At least 17 people were killed in two days of rioting over the weekend in Conakry and other towns, where youths took to the streets to protest against Lansana Conte’s appointment on Friday of Eugene Camara as the country’s prime minister.

 

Unions, which object to Camara as too close to Conte, had given the president until Monday to name a consensus premier, as he had agreed two weeks ago to end an earlier 18-day strike in which dozens of people were killed in widespread rioting.

 

Strike leaders say Conte, a reclusive, chain-smoking diabetic in his 70s, is no longer fit to rule the former French colony after 23 years in power.