Guinea clashes ‘over driver beating’ injure 17

Conakry: Seventeen people were injured, including five with bullet wounds, during clashes Friday in northern Guinea between security forces and people demonstrating over the beating of a truck driver by soldiers, police and hospital sources and witnesses said.

“At least 17 people were injured” during the violence in the northern city of Mali, a police officer told AFP.

Of those injured, five were shot, including two hit in the “shoulders, two others in the thigh and a fifth in the buttocks”, a hospital source told AFP.

The violence erupted when the motorcade of Lieutenant Colonel Issa Camara, commander of the Labe military region, which includes Mali, was “blocked by a truck”, one resident told AFP.

To “avenge the insult”, the soldiers beat the driver “before leaving him in agony”, added the witness.

Bystanders took the driver to hospital “in a terrible state” before city residents who learned of the incident took to the streets chanting “Death to the torturers, justice for the driver”, said another witness.

Clashes erupted when angry demonstrators headed towards the prefecture, which was “protected by an impressive security cordon”, said the police officer.

“The police were overwhelmed by the crowd,” witness Ramata Souare told AFP, adding that tear gas grenades were also thrown at the demonstrators.

Calm had returned to the city in the early evening, according to one resident.

More than half the population of the West African country lives in poverty despite its rich supplies of gold, diamonds and oil.