Twenty-two people have been jailed in the Guinean city of Kankan after protesting power cuts, their lawyer said on Tuesday. The protesters were among hundreds who took to the streets of the eastern city a week ago, demanding the construction of a promised hydroelectric dam and an end to power outages. Protesters clashed with security forces over two days in the city, according to witnesses and a security official who declined to be named. On Monday, 22 people, mostly youths, were jailed after being charged with disturbing public order and civil disobedience, according to their lawyer Antoine Camara. Security forces were deployed across Kankan on Tuesday, according to city residents interviewed by AFP in anticipation of a rally demanding the detainees' release. Guinea is a resource-rich but impoverished West African nation of some 13 million people, where demand for electricity is growing and power cuts are rampant. The country's president, Alpha Conde, first came to power in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015 partly on promises of delivering electricity nationwide. He is expected to run for re-election this year after controversially changing the constitution in the former French colony in a move that critics see as a power grab by an increasingly autocratic leader. bm/mrb/eml/gd