Food scarce as tense Guinea strike squeezes Conakry

CONAKRY, Jan 22 (Reuters) This rubbish-strewn parking lot on the edge of Guinea's capital Conakry should be heaving with battered minibuses, passengers haggling over fares and children peddling cigarettes and chewing gum.

Instead, a handful of rusting Peugeot taxis and Toyota minivans stand idle, slowly being coated with dust by the seasonal Harmattan wind blowing down from the Sahara, as their drivers wait despondently for clients.

The third nationwide strike in a year, now in its 12th day, has brought Guinea to its knees. The West African country's unions say President Lansana Conte, a reclusive diabetic in his 70s, is unfit to govern and should step aside.

Even as the stoppage bites into their pockets and food supplies, many in the former French colony -- desperately poor despite its huge reserves of minerals -- seem to agree that 23 years of Conte's rule is enough.

At least eight people have been killed, mostly by stray bullets, as the security forces quash protests against the veteran leader in towns as far away as Nzerekore, set deep in rainforests more than 500 km south of Conakry.

''When you've had more than two decades of suffering, you're ready to suffer some more to get a final result,'' said Aboubacar Fofana, a 30-year-old economics graduate who scrapes together a living as a market trader.

''Maybe at some point the security forces will realise they can't kill everyone just to save one man.'' FIGHTING FOR BREAD Riot police armed with tear gas grenades and rifles have opened fire on protesters in Conakry's suburbs enough times in recent days to keep many people off the streets.

Stalls in main markets have stood empty for days and shops are shuttered. Even if they could get transport to the few areas where food is still sold, many people have run out of money.

Rice, bread and stock cubes have risen in price. Even the usual staples of sweet potato leaf stew or steamed cassava with groundnut sauce are now beyond the reach of many.

''Since the strike started I have only been able to prepare a proper meal twice. Otherwise I share a stick of bread with a neighbour,'' said Hawa Keita, 29, who shares a small compound with six other families in the Dixinn district of Conakry.

Barefoot children played outside in the hazy Harmattan sunlight, skipping over mud-soaked open drains.

''There is bauxite, gold, diamonds in this country but we see nothing of it,'' Keita said.

Across the street, a group of men shared glasses of sweet tea, sat on the curbside around a small charcoal stove.

''All the shops are locked up so there is no rice. When bread comes from the oven, people fight for it because there is not enough,'' said Adama Traore, a 36-year-old market trader.

''We want change. And we are ready to die if we have to,'' he said.

EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERE With popular discontent so strong, analysts and diplomats say the latest general strike presents the most serious threat yet to Conte's near quarter century in power.

''In the past, people have tended to run home to safety as soon as a few people were killed,'' said Mike McGovern, a specialist on Guinea at Yale University in the United States.

''However, given the generally explosive atmosphere in the country now, the repressive tendencies of the army could spark a popular revolt, and the situation could change dramatically.'' Negotiations between the unions and Conte's camp appear deadlocked.

As the stalemate drags on, some in the country rated Africa's most corrupt by watchdog Transparency International last year, are managing to profit from the crisis.

''Usually fuel is 5,000 (Guinean) francs a litre but we're selling it for more,'' said Amadou, a black market petrol trader who declined to give his family name.

''You have to find food for your children,'' he said with a shrug, before turning to serve a red-bereted member of the Presidential Guard waiting with a plastic jerry can behind him.

REUTERS BDP RS0911