Guinean food stocks pillaged

2005-07-03 19:52

Conakry - Inhabitants of the Guinean capital Conakry were in shock on Sunday after two attacks on rice stocks, one of which involved overnight break-ins at the central food market.

On Saturday, two trucks carrying a total of some 60 tons of rice were stopped by groups of young men in a southern suburb of Conakry and emptied of their contents, with the looters making off before police arrived.

Several stores owned by traders in the central Madina market were then broken into and robbed in the early hours of Sunday, with the attackers taking away several tons of rice in two vehicles.

Police presence

Traders, who had already shut their stores after Saturday's incident, remained closed on Sunday, despite the presence of police at the market.

The overnight incidents hit stores run by traders of the Peuhl ethnic group.

The looting followed a small demonstration organised on Thursday to protest against high food prices in Guinea.

Several dozen young protesters shouted slogans against President Lansana Conte and his regime, and police arrested several of them.

Last month the Brussels-based think-tank the International Crisis Group warned that Guinea, a former French colony that has borders with the conflict-torn states of Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia, risked becoming the world's next "failed state".

- AFP