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Las Vegas SUN

February 16, 2007

# U.N. Provides $2.5 Million to Guinea

ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.N. Provides $2.5 Million to Guinea UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations has allocated $2.35 million from an emergency fund to provide humanitarian aid to Guinea, which is in the midst of a tense nationwide strike, a U.N. spokesperson said Friday.

The money from the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund has been made available for medical supplies, essential communication systems and humanitarian air service to provide aid to remote parts of the country, said U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas.

"The humanitarian situation has increasingly become a source of concern since a nationwide strike was launched last month," she said.

The trouble began after President Lansana Conte appointed his close ally Eugene Camara as prime minister. The post had been left vacant since Conte, who seized power in a 1984 coup, fired Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo in April.

Weekend rioting and clashes between protesters and security forces led Conte to declare martial law Monday night, imposing a curfew for all but a few daylight hours and banning all public gatherings.

According to government sources, more than 100 deaths have been recorded since the start of the strike on Jan. 10, with 60 occurring within the last week, Montas said.

Guinea's 10 million people are impoverished and many live without the most basic public services, even though the country has half the world's reserves of bauxite, used to produce aluminum.

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