A man was shot dead Wednesday in a central Guinean city
shaken by clashes since the prime minister visited it the day
before to campaign for President Alpha Conde’s
re-election.
Security forces on Wednesday shot and killed Habib Petel Diallo,
20, during a protest in the city of Dalaba against the premier’s
visit, the man’s brother Lamine Diallo said.
A police officer who asked not to be named said the young man
had died with a shot to the head.
Guinean authorities have not officially confirmed the death.
The latest incident in Dalaba follows dozens of deaths in
previously anti-government protests, during demonstrations against
a third presidential term for Alpha Conde since October last
year.
The 82-year-old president has pushed through a new constitution
in March that allowed him to reset the two-term presidential limit
to zero, and run again in the October 18 election.
Wednesday’s killing occurred in the Fouta-Djalon region, a
bastion of the main opposition candidate contesting the election,
Cellou Dalein Diallo.
Protesters on Tuesday had pelted rocks at Prime Minister
Ibrahima Kassory Fofana’s convoy in two cities in the region: Labe
and Dalaba. Several people were injured, the government said
Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the government said the incident was part of a
“concerted plan to sabotage the electoral process”. Fofana is
Conde’s campaign manager.
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Cellou Dalein Diallo’ UFDG party has denied involvement in the
attack, according to local press reports, with some party officials
casting doubt on the government’s account.
AFP was unable to independently confirm the details of the
incident.
Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in
2010, winning re-election five years later.
Rights groups have accused him of drifting into
authoritarianism, however.
This month, the president drew criticism for apparently stoking
ethnic tensions ahead of the October election.
In a campaign speech delivered in the Malinke language, the
president told voters that backing an opposition Malinke candidate
amounted to voting for Cellou Dalein Diallo.
Guinea’s politics are mostly drawn along ethnic lines. President
Conde’s party is largely backed by Malinke people, and Diallo’s
UFDG by Fulani people, although both insist that they are
pluralist.
Diallo is a former prime minister who was heavily involved in
the protest campaign against a Conde a third term.
-AFP
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