On Monday, two young individuals were fatally shot in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, marking the commencement of an indefinite general strike against the military regime that took control in 2021.
The strike aims to protest the government’s alleged suppression of opposition voices.
A coalition of the primary unions has called upon both public and private sectors to participate in the strike, advocating for the liberation of a prominent media advocate, reduction in food costs, and cessation of media censorship.
Early Monday, schools, shops, markets, and roads in Conakry were deserted, and hospitals provided only minimal services as young individuals erected barricades on main roads.
In certain outskirts, sporadic clashes occurred, resulting in the deaths of two young men.
“They killed our son, they targeted him and shot him in the neck,” Adama Keita, a relative of an 18-year-old who was caught up in clashes with security forces, told the AFP news agency.
This was confirmed by a witness and a police source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The police source told AFP, “I saw the motionless body of this teenager, I had tears in my eyes, and I immediately left the scene so as not to be associated with this type of crime.”
A doctor at the hospital where he died told AFP that another young man died elsewhere in similar circumstances.
The strike comes a week after the military unexpectedly dissolved the transitional government – which had been in office since July 2022 – without providing a reason or announcing when a new one would be installed.
The military also ordered the seizure of passports belonging to government members and froze their bank accounts.
Under General Mamady Doumbouya’s leadership, protests have become infrequent since the military government assumed power in a September 2021 coup.
Despite a deadly explosion at the country’s primary oil depot in December, which claimed the lives of at least eight individuals and brought Guinea to a standstill for several weeks, Doumbouya has refrained from making public statements since the beginning of the year.
In 2022, the military leadership implemented a ban on all demonstrations and carried out the arrest of numerous opposition leaders, civil society members, and journalists.
This crackdown on media outlets also included the removal of television channels and the disruption of radio frequencies.
The unions are demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Sekou Jamal Pendessa, the secretary-general of the Union of Press Professionals of Guinea (SPPG), who was arrested in late January for allegedly participating in an unauthorized protest.
Pendessa was recently sentenced to six months in prison, with three months suspended. Internet restrictions, which had been imposed three months earlier, were lifted last week, coinciding with the announcement of the strike by the unions.
Even government officials supported the ongoing protest.
“This strike is welcome; it will compel the authorities to realize they are not infallible,” said a ministry official who requested anonymity. “I’m participating in the strike because Guineans are tired of the artificially induced suffering perpetuated by our leaders.”