Guinea- Bissau: students protest over threat by teachers to strike

A protest by students in Guinea- Bissau over an impending strike action by teachers reportedly turned chaotic on Friday.

AFP reports that the demonstrators looted shops and headquarters of the ruling party and a minister’s residence.

The students blocked roads and burned tires with some said to have wielded clubs and set fire to vehicles.

Students wore banners with the inscription ‘’ We want to go to school’‘, ‘’ We are tired of staying at home’‘ or ‘‘Education is a right’‘.

A student at the Agostino Neto Nigh School said ‘’ They don’t care about us. All they think about is campaign. Look at all these big cars, these banners deployed all over the country, don’t you think that the money spent could have taken care of the teachers’ demands,” Carlos Badilé queries.

Police used warning shots to disperse the protesters, AFP said. Calm has returned to the area as police continue to patrol the capital, Bissau.

In early January, the teachers ended a four month strike action after a deal with the government to pay back wages.

But on Tuesday, the teachers’ union said authorities have failed to keep to their promises, hence threatened to resume the strike on Monday February 11.

On Friday afternoon, the government announced that funds needed to pay the December and January salaries were available.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 10, which is expected to resolve the political crisis facing the West African nation since August 2015.

Guinea- Bissau, is one of the least countries in the world on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human development Index.

AFP