Keita refused to travel with his teammates after learning that he would not be in the starting line-up in the match against Leverkusen.

Bremen, who suffered a 5-0 defeat in the match, said the 29-year-old Guinean will no longer train with the team or be in the dressing room.

In a statement released Tuesday, Bremen's Head of Professional Football Clemens Fritz said "Naby's behavior is intolerable for us as a club."

"With this action, he has let his team down in a tense sporting and personnel situation and put himself above the team. We cannot allow that," Fritz said.

"At this stage of the season, we (Bremen) need to be fully focused on the upcoming games and have a team that stands very close together. There was therefore no alternative to the measures we took," the Bremen football authority added.

Leverkusen made club and national history after their 5-0 victory. They were crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time in their 120-year-old history. This was also the first time that reigning champions Bayern Munich lost the trophy in at least 12-years.

Bremen, 12th in the Bundesliga standings, are scheduled to host third-placed VfB Stuttgart on Sunday.

Some information for this article was sourced from Reuters.

Laye Sekou Camara of Electricity in Guinea, EDG was dismissed along with his two deputies, Fode Soumah and Abdoulaye Kone, in a decree signed by junta chief General Mamady Doumbouya.

The managing director and deputy of Guiena’s national oil company were also dismissed in a separate decree.

"Those responsible for this situation (linked to the power cuts) owe us an explanation and everyone must take their share of responsibility," Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah told the press on Friday.

The decision comes after two children, aged eight and 14, were shot dead amid violent protests on Tuesday in Kindia, 130 kilometers east of Conakry.

Clashes also erupted between protesters and security forces in Conakry on Thursday after a power cut plunged much of the capital into darkness.

In a statement, EDG said the blackout was the result of "an incident on a high-voltage pylon."

Guinea, which is poor despite considerable mineral and natural resources, has endured decades of dictatorial rule and suffers from fuel shortages and power cuts.

The economic crisis Conakry is battling first requires lowering political and social tensions in the West African capital paralyzed by a general strike at the end of last month, the prime minister told Radio France International in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

A referendum to change the constitution is expected to be held by the end of the year, said Oury Bah, who was appointed on February 27, the second day of the strike.

"The other electoral processes will follow," he said.

"There are a lot of contingencies," the prime minister added, admitting there would be "some delays."

"In a context of economic, financial fragility we have to work to stabilize and ease the political situation to have the possibility to look at and follow the stages of a calendar in relative calm."

"So the aim is to complete that and I think 2025 is a good period to crown the whole process."

General Mamady Doumbouya took power in a September 2021 coup and pledged to hand over to civilians after a transition period running to the end of this year to allow time for reforms after decades of instability.

The prime minister denied the regime was seeking to hang on to power, saying: "The leadership running Guinea wants Guinea to be a normal country again."

Under international pressure, the junta promised to hand over to elected civilians by the end of 2024, but the opposition has accused it of authoritarian drift.

The deaths happened amid a strike that paralyzed Conakry and disrupted some mining operations. It has also emptied the main thoroughfares, closed banks and shuttered markets.

There were pockets of unrest in some residential areas on Monday where groups of young men took to the streets to express frustration with living conditions in the junta-led West African nation.

The mother of 18-year-old student Mamady Keïta said her son died after being shot in the chest in the Sonfonia district. Motorbike taxi driver Ibrahima Touré, 21, also died from a bullet wound after clashes with security forces in another district, his father said. A hospital source confirmed both deaths.

There was no immediate comment from police, but a senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Keita's death without giving further details.

It was not immediately clear if there would be further unrest on Tuesday, but the strike, which includes the public, private and informal sectors, is set to continue.

An umbrella group for multiple workers’ unions have expressed several demands, among them the lowering of food prices, the lifting of internet restrictions, and the application of a wage deal reached with the government in November.

There has been no official response from the government, which was set up by a military junta that seized power in a 2021 coup. It has quashed recurring anti-government protests, sometimes violently, in the last few years.

Guinea is the world's second-largest bauxite producer. Traders on Monday said alumina prices in China were trading higher due to the strike, but the impact was limited for now due to Chinese inventories.

Small groups of women set up roadblocks early using stones and whatever they could find as traffic into the city center built up.

The protest kicked off in a neighborhood which was one of the worst hit by a huge fire in Guinea’s main fuel depot in December. Twenty-five people died in the blaze, which also left the economy reeling, with inflation rising, petrol rationed and no trucks moving merchandise.

The women demanded the help that had been promised after the fire to repair their homes, the AFP correspondent at the scene and local media said.

They also protested price hikes for basic goods, repression of the opposition and curbs on the internet.

Young men joined the demonstration and threw stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas. The demonstrators were later dispersed and the roads cleared, GuineeNews website reported.

Guinea has been led since September 2021 by a military junta that deposed the country's first democratically-elected president.

The ruling junta banned all demonstrations in 2022 and has arrested several opposition leaders, civil society members and the press.

Internet access has been restricted for several weeks.

Col. Mamady Doumbouya, who has ruled since overthrowing the country's first democratically elected president in 2021, announced the vote during an end-of-year speech late Sunday.

He gave no date for the referendum.

"In the new year, a new constitution which resembles us and brings us together will be submitted to a referendum," Doumbouya said.

He promised a constitution "approved by the people and which is not a copy and paste but a constitution, which draws inspiration from the past to together build our future."

Doumbouya also said that people appointed by the state will soon be named to lead municipal councils, which were elected in 2018 and whose mandates end in the first few months of the year.

Nearly all the councils are currently headed by officials from parties of the ousted civilian ex-president Alpha Conde or former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo which are critical of the military leadership.

Doumbouya said the announcements were due to a wish to "continue the considerable efforts to return to constitutional order through the organization of free, democratic and transparent elections" respecting the timetable for a transition back to civilian rule.

Conde took office in 2010 after decades of authoritarian rule.

But he came under increasing fire after pushing through a constitutional reform that critics had argued was designed to allow him to run for a third term.

After taking power, Doumbouya, under international pressure, promised to hand the reins of government back to elected civilians by January 2026.

The September 2021 coup is among a string of putsches and attempted coups in West Africa since 2020.

It took nine days for the blaze to be fully extinguished after a blast rocked the state oil company's main depot on December 18 in the capital Conakry, where 24 people died and another 454 were injured.

But Guinea will likely feel the aftereffects for the foreseeable future.

The West African nation remains one of the least developed countries in the world despite being rich in minerals, including gold and bauxite.

At Conakry's main market, Madina, most stores are closed. Merchandise trucks sit idled at the foot of buildings.

Traffic has also come to a standstill at the port of Conakry, near the epicenter of the fire.

The streets of the capital have fewer vehicles than usual — except for the massive lines at petrol stations.

With little fuel available, fishermen stay close to the coast where there are fewer fish to catch.

The government — led since September 2021 by a military junta that deposed the country's first democratically-elected president — announced on Saturday that petrol distribution would resume.

SEE ALSO:

Guinea Fuel Supplies Improving Since Oil Storage Blast

But fuel is rationed, limited to 25 liters per vehicle, and five liters per motorcycle and three-wheeled tuk-tuk. The use of jerrycans was banned to prevent a black market from emerging.

"There is suffering," said Mamadou Yaya Bah, a tuk-tuk taxi driver who sat for hours waiting for his turn at a service station in Conakry.

He said his fares have tripled or quadrupled due to the rationing.

Taxi drivers are not venturing out of the capital.

"We are never sure to find fuel in the interior of the country," said taxi driver Mamadou Saliou Balde.

'No fuel, no security'

Goods are not reaching areas outside of the capital, either, where roads are constantly in bad shape.

Alpha Kabine Doumbouya, a trader who has three delivery trucks and five taxis in Kankan, 600 kilometers east of Conakry, said all of the vehicles have stopped service.

"If Conakry coughs, the rest of the country catches a cold," he said.

"The drivers are out of work. We are getting by here at my wife's restaurant while waiting for better days," he said.

A customs officer at Guinea's border with Sierra Leone told AFP that the vehicles that used to go and get goods in Conakry are no longer coming.

"No fuel, no security, too much hassle," he said on condition of anonymity.

Neighboring countries are helping out.

Sierra Leone has given Guinea permission to use its depots to store its petroleum products. On Wednesday, Ivory Coast said it would deliver 50 million liters of petrol a month to Guinea.

Tipping point

The crisis is expected to cut economic growth by 0.7% points this year, according to the National Statistics Institute.

Transport costs have jumped by 60% nationally, said Guinean economist Tidiane Barry.

Public finances will also take a hit as revenue from the energy and transport sectors fall, Barry said.

Inflation is expected to top 10% in December, and more than 15% in Conakry alone, the economist added.

At the Taouyah market, Hawa Toure's grocery bag was empty.

"I have nothing to put in my bag because prices at the market have suddenly become so high," she said.

Vegetable seller Aminata Camara was falling asleep in his stall.

"I'm still waiting for the first customer," he said. "I don't know what Guinea did to god to deserve this punishment."

Barry said the disaster is a "tipping point" for Guinea as it has exposed the vulnerabilities of its economy, including its reliance on oil.

But it is also a chance to rethink Guinea's economic strategy.

"Investing in safe infrastructure, diversifying the economy and strengthening regional cooperation are key steps towards sustainable and resilient economic development," Barry said.

The fire had already been brought under control, but not fully put out.

"Operations to cool all the petrol installations are continuing" and "the accident zone remains closed to permit an investigation," it said.

Of the 24 dead, 11 have yet to be identified. Among the injured, 31 are still being treated in hospital and 423 have been discharged.

Air quality has improved, the government said, but wearing a mask is still recommended.

Fuel distribution resumed Saturday with limits of 25 liters per car and 5 liters per two- or three-wheel vehicles. Filling jerrycans is banned.

Tanker trucks are no longer being escorted by police.

According to a preliminary count, about 800 buildings have been damaged, most of them within a radius of 500 meters around the incident.

The government has already handed out 460 survival kits, with the intention to eventually distribute them to 2,141 affected households, the statement said.

In total, about 11,000 people were directly affected by the fire.

The December 18 blast killed 23 people and damaged most of the fuel tanks at the West African nation's main oil terminal that handles its fuel imports, leading to widespread shortages.

"The government is pleased to announce to the population that, thanks to diplomatic efforts with neighboring countries, fuel supply in gas stations will see a marked improvement," it said in a statement late Friday.

The news could reassure global markets, which saw Chinese alumina futures surge to record highs due to concerns that fuel shortages in Guinea, the world's third-largest bauxite producer, could curb its exports of the alumina feed material.

The government said from Saturday gas stations would limit sales to 25 liters per car, 5 liters per motorcycle, while filling fuel cans is prohibited.