Desperate teenagers riot about cost of food

Scores of youths with sticks and stones blocked traffic and burned tyres in Guinea's capital on Wednesday in a protest at rising prices for basic goods such as rice in the impoverished West African nation, witnesses said.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, some of whom shouted "Down with (President Lansana) Conte", the witnesses said. Others threw stones at cars in the crumbling, pot-holed capital Conakry and several people were arrested.

Soaring oil prices and the depreciation of the Guinean franc have increased hardship for Guinea's 8 million people, around half of whom live on less than $1 (about R7) a day.

The former French colony holds a third of the world's known bauxite reserves as well as gold and diamonds but has suffered from years of authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement.

Guinea is on edge because of Conte's failing health which has raised fears of a dangerous power vacuum in the country, long seen as a bulwark against wars raging in nearby states.

The official inflation rate is running at over 30 percent and a 50kg sack of local rice, which cost 26 000 Guinean francs (about 8USD) last year now costs nearly five times as much at around 125 000 Guinean francs.

In May, Guinea raised fuel prices by more than 50 percent, saying the spike in international oil prices was to blame. The measure hit hard in a nation where people rely on diesel and illuminating paraffin oil because of chronic power cuts.

Across West Africa, food prices have been rising because of poor harvests due to last year's drought and locust invasion.

On Tuesday, Conte called on traders to cut the costs of basic goods, saying they were excessive. Last year, there were riots in several towns over a rise in the price of rice.

Making difficult lives worse, flash foods struck Conakry on Wednesday, killing one child and knocking down walls. Weather experts said it was the heaviest rainfall on June 28 since 1906.