A 20 year-old man was shot dead by security forces.

The violence in the capital Conakry and across the country follows an opposition call for a boycott of the poll because of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Three polling stations were stormed, Electoral officials were stoned and voting material was burned.

Since October there have been protests against President Alpha Conde apparently seeking to prolong his term at the helm by extending the years in office from five to seven.

There’s a growing demand for him follow the example of neighboring Ivorean President Alassane Ouatarra by stepping down after the constitutionally mandated two terms as president

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Opposition activists say security forces fired blindly into protestors during yesterday’s voting.

There’s no official confirmation of the number of deaths as security forces responded to attacks on polling stations and the stoning of electoral officials.

Guinean opposition parties are  calling for further protests against the killings and President Alpha Conde’s determination to cling to power after his two-terms at the helm runs out.

The referendum will extend presidential terms to seven from five years.

It will also nullify Conde’s previous terms so he can start his presidency afresh.

It is feared that in the charged atmosphere further protests will end in more bloodshed.

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An 18-year-old student was shot in the head by police in the capital Conakry and a young woman died in the northern city of Labe.

Alpha Conde has not formally confirmed  he’ll use a constitutional amendment to seek a third five-year term in office.

But fears that he will make such an attempt has brought hundreds of thousands of protestors onto the street since October.

At least 22 demonstrators and one policemen have died.

After yesterday’s death of a student protestors attacked a courthouse and the offices of the ruling Guinean People’s Assembly in Conakry. 

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Guinea’s President Alpha Conde has sacked his security minister following delay protests against indications he will try to stay in power after his two-term mandate runs out.

At least 13 people have died in demonstrations in Conakry in recent days.

President Alpha Conde hasn’t given an official reason for sacking Security Minister Alpha Ibrahima Keira.

Senior officials in Conakry say is certainly because he’s unhappy about the handling of protest against the possibility of his staying in power.

Conde, whose two-term limit runs out next year, has asked officials to examine the possibility of amending the constitution to enable him to press the reset button on his presidency as a number of other African  leaders have done.

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She charged them R400 which is almost a month’s salary in that West African country.

At least 700 women were conned by faith healer N’na Fanta Camara.

She fed them herbs and spices that made their stomachs bloat.

Then she warned them against seeing doctors – although some of the  fake pregnancies lasted as long as 16 months.

At least 47 will  suffer long-term complications from the treatment.

More than 200 angry woman demonstrated outside the police station where she is being held pending charges of fraud and endangerment.

Camara is quoted as saying she only wanted to help.

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Their owners could face millions of dollars in fines.

The ships were seized by inspectors from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.

They found them to be violating regulations on catching protected fish and using nets with small holes to facilitate bigger hauls.

With that equipment a Chinese ship can catch in a week what it takes local fisherman a year to haul in.

The arrests came after a two-month regional patrol on a Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza.

The Greenpeace ship carries local inspectors from West African countries often hamstrung by budget and technology constraints.

A recent study by Frontiers in Marine Science estimated West Africa’s annual losses from illegal and unregulated fishing at $2,3 billion.

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An experimental Ebola vaccine tested on humans in Guinea in the waning days of the West African epidemic has been shown to provide 100 percent protection against the lethal disease.

The vaccine has not yet been approved by any regulatory authority.

But it is considered so effective that an emergency stockpile of 300 000 doses has already been created for use should an outbreak flare up again.

Discovered in the DRC in 1976, the grotesque nature of victims  deaths — copious hemorrhaging from every orifice — has given Ebola a frightening reputation.

The huge, explosive 2014 outbreak that took 11,000 lives in Africa and spread overseas, killing a handful of people in Europe and the United States provided the political and economic drive to make an effective vaccine.

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Israel and Guinea have re-established diplomatic relations severed 49 years ago when Israel was fighting the six-day war   against its Arab neighbours.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu says his country’s about to tie the diplomats knot  with another African country shortly.

Kidnappings in Central Africa by the Lord’s Resistance Army hit a six – year high in the first half of 2016.

Uganda’s threatening  to roll back its involvement in an operation to hunt down the rebels, led by Joseph Kony.

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It  warns against complacency and cautions that male survivors can infect their sexual partners for up to a year after recovering.

ends intro

The decision by WHO’s Ebola emergency committee comes following flare-ups that emerged in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after authorities declared virus transmission over.

The announcement ends the international emergency declaration and the WHO urges that any restrictions put on the affected countries be lifted.

Vice chairman of the WHO Ebola emergency committee Robert Steffen says the organization’s current battle against Zika in no way dictated its decision to declare the Ebola emergency over.

He says flare-ups of new Ebola cases are not linked to the original chains of transmission dating back to December 2013.

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The UN health agency says in an update published this week that situation’s encouraging.

It notes officials are still unable to track exactly where the virus is spreading.

In Guinea, five of the country’s nine new cases were detected only after the patients died; none had sought treatment in a hospital.

In Sierra Leone, only two of the nine cases were identified as contacts of previous Ebola patients.

In Liberia, the outbreak will be declared over on Saturday unless any new cases are announced.

The WHO estimates Ebola has killed more than 11 000 people in this current outbreak

The vast majority were in West Africa.

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