CONAKRY, Guinea - Angry crowds have attacked rice trucks and looted warehouses in the West African nation of Guinea, where a 20-year-old government that has provided little electricity, water or development faces a critical new shortage: food.
Soaring rice prices abroad and alleged mismanagement at home — in a lavishly green country of ample rainfall and mineral wealth — have helped make a bag of the staple unaffordable for many.
Most shelves were bare of rice at any price Wednesday, days after President Gen. Lausana Conte tried to make rice affordable again by demanding that stores sell it at $20, well below the going local market rate.
Ships waiting offshore reportedly held tons of it, but were demanding guarantees of a promised government subsidy before they would unload.
"It's a catastrophe. There's no rice. The rare times you find it, it's out of any price range," Oury Diallo, a driver, said.
In his hometown, Diallo said, rice was selling at $36 for a 110-pound bag — in a land where most earn people less than a dollar a day. "That's never been seen, in the history of the country," he said.
"For the price of rice," women with their hands out murmured in appeal on the main boulevards of the capital, Conakry.
Guinea is a lush Atlantic coast nation of 8 million, with dirt roads cutting through thick forests.
The aging Conte, installed after a 1984 military coup, has given the country one thing its neighbors lack: peace. Under Conte, Guinea has avoided civil wars that laid waste to surrounding countries in the 1990s.
The country can claim little but security, however, despite fertile agricultural land and the world's largest exports of bauxite — aluminum ore.
The French, angry at Guinea's insistence on full independence in 1958, before other French West Africa colonies, pulled out with a vengeance, severing all aid and most ties. The country has never thrived since.
Conte is reportedly in poor health and spending most of his time at his home village. Critics accuse him of allowing development and social systems to languish, neglected.
In Conakry, residents show faucets that yield no water, in homes that have electricity only a few hours a day, at best.
Many live thanks to mangos they pull off trees, and vegetables they pull out of small plots. Domestic rice farming remains too insignificant to feed very many.
Rice prices internationally soared 40 percent between April 2003 and April 2004. Despite its farming potential, Guinea imports its rice from Asia. Depreciation of Guinea's franc by 20 percent against the dollar since last year has put market goods further out of reach.
Guinea's people eat an average of 190 pounds of rice a year, seasoned by palm oil, leaves or manioc.
As prices rose, crowds looted dozens of warehouses over the past two weeks, national radio reported.
Angry mobs of young men looted rice trucks.
Trying to quell popular anger, the government demanded merchants sell the rice for $20 a bag, promising a subsidy of $5 per sack.
Rice all but disappeared from stores. In some districts, there is no rice to be found anywhere, said one retailer. "Business people are afraid of being attacked at night by looters," he said.
Conte accused some of wanting "to starve the people." At least 88 district officials and five mayors were fired, according to the Horoya newspaper, which is close to sources in power.
As the week drew on, it was unclear where resolution — and food — would come from.
"It's become very hard," said Marie-Therese, a market woman, who spoke on condition she not be identified further.
"I have four children to take care of — so I eat only one time a day," she said.