Guinea: Cloudy Days in Conakry

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Portuguese Denial. Casualty figures were uncertain at week's end. One hundred Guineans were reported killed. The number of killed and wounded among the invaders was unknown, but about 100 were captured. Three Europeans —including a five-year-old Yugoslav girl —were killed in the fighting, which went on for some 40 hours in the capital. Lisbon denied any Portuguese connection. In a similar episode, however, Portuguese aircraft recently bombed Senegalese border villages from which guerrillas had been attacking Guinea-Bissau (the attacks quickly ceased).

The fact that white men had been in the landing party infuriated other black African governments. Their reaction recalled a Touré maxim from the early 1960s, when Pan-Africanism was more vibrant than it is now: "Africa is like a human body. If one finger is cut, the whole body feels the pain." Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere sent $1,500,000 in aid to Guinea. Libya dispatched arms. Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and the Congo-Kinshasa promised help. Somalia opened recruiting centers for volunteers to fight in Guinea. University students demonstrated against white colonialism in Lusaka, Abidjan and Dar es Salaam. In Lagos, students toted placards reading DOWN WITH NATO and shouted "Go home, pigs!" at white passersby.

Temporarily, at least, the invasion also rekindled support at home for Sekou Touré, 48. Poorer Guineans have generally backed Touré, but their incomes from bananas, rice and pineapple farming have steadily decreased. The country (about the size of Oregon, with 4,000,000 people) contains one of the world's largest bauxite deposits, and has signed a $180 million agreement under which a Western consortium will mine and market the ore starting next year. But most hotels in Conakry normally do not serve lunch, for the simple reason that there is not enough food. At least 600,000 Guineans have fled into exile, many to neighboring countries. That alone is enough to make a ruler cry wolf every now and then.