Five young children perished in an arson attack on Tuesday during clashes in central Guinea following weekend local elections, a government minister said.
Huts and houses were set on fire in the town of Kalinko, and “five Guinean infants died in the flames”, the minister Boureima Conde said on television on Tuesday, without specifying their age or identity.
Unrest flared in the West African country after Sunday’s ballot.
One person was killed when opposition party supporters clashed with security forces in Guinea during vote counting on Monday, as activists alleged fraud.
Guinean opposition leaders have denounced the west African country’s long-delayed local elections, saying vote rigging with proxy ballots occurred at several polling stations.
Political distrust is high in Guinea, where ethnic tensions often turn deadly around election time.
The last local election was held in 2005 under the decades-long rule of authoritarian leader General Lansane Conte, who died in 2008.
