WORKERS started a national strike in Guinea, shutting businesses and disrupting operations across the mining sector as they demanded higher wages, the lifting of web restrictions and the release of a detained trade union leader. Streets were largely empty, banks closed and normally bustling markets deserted in the West African country's capital Conakry. Security forces were deployed at major road junctions. There was no immediate comment 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. A senior official of…