Curfew slapped on town after residents riot over dearer electricity

Residents in the Guinean town of Pita were under curfew on Wednesday after rioters went on the rampage over higher electricity prices, the latest in a series of protests to hit the volatile West African nation this year. Hospital officials and human rights sources told IRIN that one youth had been killed by a stray bullet and several people had been injured when police moved in to quell the unrest, which erupted on Tuesday. Guinean President Lansana Conte, who has ruled this country for two decades, has had to weather a string of protests this year. Rising food prices and unpaid state salaries have sent teachers, former railway workers, students and hungry youths out onto the streets. Witnesses in Pita, reached by telephone, said the latest violence flared up when employees working for the national electricity company, EDG, began going from house to house with the latest electricity bills. “People suddenly started coming from all corners of the town, denouncing the increases," one witness said. Residents said the electricity company's office had been ransacked and angry protesters had beaten up some employees. The rioters also attacked the local police station, smashing windows there, they added. Hospital sources said a school boy was hit by a stray bullet and died in hospital. "Another youth was shot and almost lost his entire chin," one hospital worker said, adding that dozens more were being treated for injuries. A human rights source said police had fired warning shots into the air and residents said several people had been arrested. On Wednesday police were patrolling the town, some 350 km north-east of the capital, Conakry, to enforce the curfew. Officials from Conakry and from the region were discussing the situation at a meeting in Pita on Wednesday, but there was no formal response from the government. With a third of the world's bauxite reserves, an abundance of diamonds, gold and iron ore and plentiful rainfall, Guinea has the potential to be one of the most prosperous countries in West Africa. But per capita income just US $350 per year, and the country's neglected infrastructure is falling apart. In July, gangs of youths started pillaging trucks of rice in Conakry because the price of Guinea's staple food had risen to the point where ordinary people in the city could no longer afford to buy it. Discontent is on the rise and diplomats are also fretting about Conte's health. He is now 70 and diabetes and heart problems mean he cannot walk unassisted. Diplomats worry that in a country which has known only two authoritarian presidents since independence from France in 1958, Conte has chosen no obvious successor and the country is starting to crumble beneath him.