The gunfire broke out shortly after Guinea’s main opposition leaders boycotted a meeting called by President Alpha Conde aimed at ending days of unrest that has spread beyond the capital and now killed at least six people.
Hundreds of protesters have been wounded since the unrest began on Wednesday. Guinea’s notoriously ill-disciplined security forces have a history of brutal crackdowns on protests.
“Seven people were hit by bullets fired by the security forces,” Thierno Maadjou Sow, head of Guinea’s main human rights watchdog, OGDH, told Reuters.
“One of them, Mamadou Aliou Bah, died from his wounds,” he added. “It has become an ethnic battle between the Malinke and the Peul. Wherever one group is in the minority, they are attacked by the other.”
Government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara said the situation was “worrying” but would not give a toll for Monday’s clashes.
Behind Guinea’s political feuding there is a rivalry between the Malinke and the Peul, Guinea’s two largest ethnic groups. The Malinke broadly support the government while the opposition draws heavily from the Peul.
Conde wants to discuss preparations for a long-delayed election that is meant to complete a transition to civilian rule after a 2008 military coup. He missed a deadline on Sunday for a presidential decree to officially call the election for May 12.
Preparations for the vote, which is essential to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in European aid to the world’s largest bauxite supplier, are being hampered by opposition claims that the government is seeking to rig the outcome.