KEY POINTS:
CONAKRY - Violence triggered by a general strike spread to the remote south of Guinea on Saturday, killing at least three people as security forces clashed with protesters demanding an end to President Lansana Conte's rule.
Union leaders called the strike, which has paralysed the country for 11 straight days, saying Conte - a reclusive diabetic in his 70s - is unfit to govern and should step aside.
Riot police armed with rifles and tear gas have clashed with youths in the coastal capital Conakry and a dozen other towns in recent days, killing at least five people.
But Saturday's was the first unrest reported as far away as Nzerekore, more than 500km south of the capital in the volatile forest region.
Residents said several hundred protesters had marched into town, cutting down trees to block roads. A police station in the Boiro neighbourhood was looted and prisoners released.
The strike and the protests it has triggered pose the toughest challenge yet to Conte's 23-year rule and threaten to throw the former French colony into turmoil, diplomats and analysts say.
With no obvious successor and a fractious military, Conte's ailing health has long caused fears of a violent struggle for power. Even factions within his own ruling elite vying to succeed him appear to be growing impatient, analysts say.
Strike leaders say Conte is too sick and erratic to rule, citing a spate of confused cabinet reshuffles and his intervention to free from jail two ex-allies accused of graft.
- REUTERS
