All civil servants in the office of Guinea's President and Prime Minister are to be replaced, Alpha Conde orders, nine days after being sworn in. Mr Conde, a veteran opposition leader, was declared the winner of Guinea's first democratic election in 52 years.

Those losing their jobs have all been put at the disposition of the employment ministry to either redeploy them or second those who are due for retirement, according to the decree read out on national television. Guineans are among the poorest people in West Africa, despite the fact that the former French colony is the world's leading exporter of the aluminium ore bauxite.