Guinea refused entry to a delegation of mediators from West African regional body Ecowas on Friday, saying it had resolved the dispute which sparked a general strike last month, Guinea Foreign Ministry sources said. An Ecowas delegation headed by Nigeria’s former military ruler General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had been scheduled to travel to the Guinean capital Conakry on Friday to encourage dialogue after the 18-day strike, in which more than 90 people were killed.
The strike, the third of its kind in a year, ended on Saturday after veteran President Lansana Conte’s government agreed to name a consensus prime minister and reduce prices of fuel and rice. A new premier has yet to be named.
”For the government it was difficult to accept this mission because the measure which should have been the object of our mediation — the application of the agreement between the government and the unions — is already being respected,” said one ministry source.
The strike was launched on January 10 to challenge the 23-year-old rule of Conte, a reclusive, chain-smoking diabetic in his 70s who union leaders said was no longer fit to run the West African country.
On Wednesday, Conte announced that the new premier would be the head of the government, free to propose his own team of ministers, organise civil administration and represent the head of state at international functions.
Crucially, the former general will retain control over the military — the backbone of his authoritarian rule.
Guinea, the world’s largest exporter of bauxite, resumed shipments of the ore from the port of Kamsar on Friday, an official at the national bauxite company CBG told Reuters.
Guinea has long been a bastion of stability in volatile West Africa, but diplomats and analysts have expressed fears an internecine power struggle could erupt should Conte die or be removed from office without a successor.
Rampant corruption and spiralling prices have added to popular discontent with Conte’s regime. – Reuters