20120527
AFP
Several thousand people protested across the poor west African country of Burkina Faso on Saturday to denounce a steep spike in the prices of basic food items and petrol.

About 3,000 people marched in the capital Ouagadougou shouting "No to high living costs." Other marches were staged in major provincial cities, including the economic capital of Bobo Dioulasso.

The protest was called by an umbrella grouping of seven national trade unions and other bodies opposed to high living costs. Petrol prices were recently hiked by seven percent.

"At present, the majority of Burkinabes in cities and the countryside are living hand-to-mouth due to an anarchic rise in prices," said Chrysogone Zougmore, the head of the Burkinabe Movement for the Defence of Human Rights.

Burkina Faso is facing an acute food shortage due to poor harvests following a severe drought that has wreaked havoc in several nations in the region.