Hundreds of people have been arrested in Guinea since Lansana Conte, the president,  imposed martial law on Monday, opposition leaders and human-rights groups say.

Conte declared a state of emergency to counter a wave of protests and a general strike called by unions opposed to his 23-year rule in the West African country.

On Sunday the government reduced the curfew by six hours a day. "Taking account of the discipline observed ... I have decided to reduce the curfew to 6pm to 6am starting from Monday, February 19th," Kerfala Camara, the army chief of staff, said on state television.

More than 120 people have been killed, almost all of them civilians, in protests since the start of the year.

 

Prison deaths

 

Human-rights groups accuse security forces of firing on unarmed crowds, beating protestors, looting and raping civilians.

 

"We have counted 278 arrests since the start of martial law," said Mohamed Diane, secretary-general of the opposition Assembly of the People of Guinea.

 

Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of Guinea's Human Rights League, said his organisation had been informed of hundreds of arrests, but was still compiling its own figures.

 

It was also investigating reports of the death of 22 prisoners in Nzerekore, in Guinea's south-eastern border area with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.

 

Guinea's unions, who called a general strike in January which sparked the current unrest, were refusing to enter into talks aimed at ending the unrest until martial law is lifted.