Clashes over Driver Beating Leave 17 Injured in Guinea

Local Editor

Guinean police, besides medical sources and eyewitnesses, informed that 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.

"At least 17 people were injured" during the violence in the northern city of Mali, a police officer reported.

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 said.

In further details, 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 stated.

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."

Clashes erupted when angry demonstrators headed towards the prefecture, which was "protected by an impressive security cordon," according to the police officer.

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

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team