Since the end of 2023, power cuts have intensified, particularly in Conakry. Faced with these degraded living conditions, residents’ anger regularly flares up. This is what happened on Thursday March 14, 2023, when a general blackout plunged the capital into darkness and caused riots in many neighborhoods.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Conakry, Matthias Raynal
Sitting on the sidewalk, looking for a little air from the prevailing heat, Ousmane and his friends are celebrating Ramadan. Impossible for them to stay at home without electricity: “ This is where we almost sleep. You take the chair, you sit comfortably and then you try to sleep there, there is no choice. It’s not comfortable because if you’re lying in the house, it’s more comfortable than that, but if you don’t have power, electricity, you prefer to sit like that. »
For two months, the power has been from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. But on Thursday evening, a gigantic blackout plunged Conakry into darkness at the time of breaking the fast: “At Conakry, everyone, everyone decided to demonstrate because we are fed up now. »
Young people confronted the police in traditionally protesting neighborhoods, but also elsewhere, such as in Dixinn where demonstrations are rare: “ The police returned to the neighborhood, they started throwing gas [lacrymogène, ndlr]. But nothing is going right, we can’t see the current. From that the CNRD has arrivedthis is the first time that a scandal like this has taken place here. »
In the concession kitchen, Fatoumata, Ousmane’s sister, cooks food. Without electricity, she has to cook everything on the embers. It’s unbearably hot: “ It tires us, it really tires me. If there is no power, it’s not at all easy to live with. »
After the riots, the neighborhood was supplied with power until 11 a.m. This hadn’t happened in months.
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