| schema:articleBody
| - Amnesty International said Sunday that Guinean security forces fired live rounds against protesters during post-election unrest that has killed around 10 people in the unstable West African nation. In a statement, the rights group said witness statements and video analysis confirmed that protesters were targeted. Amnesty also condemned internet disruptions during the unrest. President Alpha Conde, 82, won a controversial third presidential term with 59.49 percent of the votes, Guinea's electoral commission said Saturday. But the country's leading politician Cellou Dalein Diallo disputes the result; he claimed victory himself a day after the hotly contested October 18 poll. That triggered clashes between his supporters and security forces across the country. The opposition puts the one-week death toll at 27 people but AFP was unable to confirm either figure. Amnesty said it was still analysing information but added that based on what it has already gathered, coupled with local press reports, "dozens of people might have been killed. In a video of recent unrest in the capital Conakry, the group said a security officer shot people at very close range, "without any apparent threat to his life (and) in violation of international rules on the use of firearms by armed forces". Amnesty also analysed pictures taken in the northern Labe region -- a Diallo stronghold -- which showed bullet casings from AK-47 assault rifles. It said that Guinean security forces deployed in the region often carry such rifles, although the government denies this. "Authorities must stop the use of firearms," Fabien Offner, an Amnesty researcher, insisted in the statement. "If criminal culpability is found, those suspected must be brought to justice in fair trials before civilian courts," he added. Guinea's government was not immediately available for comment. Separately, Amnesty also criticised internet and phone-line cuts on Friday and Saturday -- calling them a "frontal attack on freedom of expression". A former opposition activist, Conde became Guinea's first democratically elected president in 2010 and won re-election in 2015. Critics accuse him of drifting towards authoritarianism, however. In March, the octogenarian president pushed through a new constitution he said would modernise the country. It also allowed him to bypass a two-term presidential limit, which provoked mass protests from October 2019 during which security forces have killed dozens of people. bm/eml/wai
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)