3rd LD Roundup: Guinean opposition protest turns violent, gun shots heard

Guinea's opposition protest against insecurity turns violent Monday in the country's capital Conakry, with gun shots heard and injuries reported.

Witnesses said security officers used tear gas to disperse protesters.

Guinea's opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo expressed his satisfaction with Monday's protests, and hailed the determination of opposition supporters who he said had turned out massively for the protests.

Diallo continued the country's opposition will intensify its protest movement on Tuesday, urging the population in the capital to regroup at designated points in the five Conakry suburbs and express "their anger at the phenomenon of insecurity that is prevalent in the city."

Even some public servants chose to remain in their homes to avoid violence.

Eyewitnesses who spoke to Xinhua said a number of people among protesters in this Conakry suburb were arrested.

Reacting to the opposition protests, Guinea's presidential camp said it had taken note of the protests and insisted that the "state will exist" in spite of the protests.

Tension was high in Ratoma suburb, a traditionally opposition stronghold, where activities were paralyzed. Businesses were closed and vehicles were nonexistent along the streets, certainly because of the violence that was intensifying.

In Matoto, another Conakry suburb, protesters started burning tyres along the roads early in the morning to prevent movement. However, intervention by security officers helped to restore normal traffic.

In a statement issued over the weekend, Conakry Governor Soriba Sorel Camara said opposition chiefs had not sought permission from the respective mayors to hold their protests on Monday.

"The more we continue ignoring the law, the more it will continue demonstrating its power," the governor warned in a statement read on national television.

Security officers were massively deployed in Conakry on Monday morning. Endi