Guinea has been under the control of a military junta, which seized power in 2021 after a coup.

A large-scale national strike, started on Monday in Guinea’s capital city, is disrupting operations across the country’s mining sector, sources have said.

Workers are demanding higher wages, better working conditions, the lifting of internet restrictions across the country and the liberation of a detained trade union leader, Sekou Jamal Pendessa. Guinea has been under the control of a military junta, which seized power in 2021 after a coup. Anti-government protests have sporadically erupted throughout the last few years, intensifying over recent months. So far, all have been quashed, sometimes violently, by the junta. The ongoing strike has left streets in the West African country’s capital, Conakry, largely empty, banks closed and normally bustling markets deserted. Security forces were deployed at major road junctions at the beginning of the week, Reuters reported.

A senior official of a mining company, speaking anonymously, told reporters that employees were refusing to work, but added that mines are maintaining minimum service operations.