Guinea: 5 shot, 15 injured during clashes over military assault on driver

17 people were injured including 5 who were shot on Friday in northern Guinea during clashes between security forces and residents over an alleged assault of a driver by soldiers.

According to residents of the town called Mali, the violence erupted after a convoy of the regional military commander, Lieutenant Colonel Issa Camara, was blocked by a truck.

“The soldiers who were enraged by the ‘insult’ of the truck driver beat him up and left him to his fate,” a resident told AFP.

The residents were reported to have sent the driver to the hospital and later gathered in the streets protesting for justice for the driver.

The crowd trooped to the prefecture of the town where the clashes began between the security forces stationed there and the residents, a police officer told AFP.

“The police were overwhelmed by the crowd and tear gas was fired at the demonstrators. Calm returned to the city later in the evening,” Ramata Souare, a witness said.

“At least 17 people were injured during the violence with five of them shot: two in the shoulders, two in the thighs and the fifth person on his buttocks,” a source at the hospital told AFP.