Shops opened for business and Guineans returned to work on Monday after President Lansana Conte apparently agreed to weaken his grip on power and union leaders subsequently suspended an unprecedented 18-day nationwide strike.

After three days of talks with union leaders and civil society, Conte agreed on Saturday to sign over some of his authority to an as-yet unnamed “consensus” prime minister, who should be agreed on by union, business, religious and civil society leaders, union leaders said.

Conte also pledged to stop food exports to help shore up Guinea’s provisions, and to work to combat corruption, according to a “final declaration” signed by the unions and Conte. The president also said he would cut the cost of rice and petrol - promises he also made to end two previous strikes in February and June last year.

The naming of a new prime minister with the power to control the government was a key demand of the unions. They blame Guinea’s downward spiral on Conte’s failing health and inability to manage affairs of state.

The new prime minister must be in high standing and “not have been implicated in the embezzlement which has brought the country to chaos,” Ibrahima Fofana, secretary general of the Guinean Workers Union (USTG) said. Fofana said the strike was a “success” because it showed that Guineans are a “social force capable of changing the regime”.

The unions’ populist platform has won backing from far beyond their traditional bases. By speaking about the issues affecting ordinary Guineans, the majority of whom live in poverty despite Guinea's vast natural wealth, the unions won far more support than the traditional political opposition.

Guinea’s Health Ministry said at least 59 people were killed during the strike, with more than half shot by security forces during large protest marches in various parts of the country on 22 January.

Regional political analysts attached some significance to the scale of the anti-Conte demonstrations, saying an often brutal post-independence history had left most Guineans unwilling to participate in mass protests. However, with crowds never larger than 30,000 in Conakry, a city of over six million people, and the continued loyalty of the military, Conte's regime was never seen as being seriously threatened.