20110418
reuters

A mutiny launched by soldiers in Ouagadougou spread to the southern town of Pô, near Burkina Faso's border with Ghana, on Sunday. Witnesses reported seeing soldiers fire into the air, loot shops and official buildings, and seize cars.

The first shots were heard around 9 pm on Saturday night, residents said. Armed men circled the town on foot and on motorbike, and reportedly blocked the marketplace.

"The soldiers took official vehicles belonging to the mayor's office and the police station," Henri Koubizara, the mayor of Pô, told RFI. They also looted the homes of military officers, Koubizara says.

Pô houses a training centre for army officers, where President Blaise Compaoré studied. It was there he met Thomas Sankara, who Compaoré helped to become president in a 1983 coup.

According to Koubizara, army officials sent a delegation to Pô on Sunday for talks with the rioting soldiers.

Compaoré dissolved his government and named a new head of the army on Friday in a bid to calm the unrest, which was sparked when the presidential guard mutinied on Thursday night.

Présidence du Faso

Blaise Compaoré, president of Burkina Faso.

But in the situation in Ouagadougou remained volatile throughout Saturday. Authorities imposed an overnight curfew after soldiers fired in the streets and angry civilians set fire to the ruling party headquarters.

This type of violence is unprecedented in Burkina Faso's protest movement, according to Luc Ibri Ga, a lawyer and civil society activist in Ouagadougou. He sees it as a consequence of the authorities' suppression of organised opposition in the form of political parties and trade unions.

"It's because they don't listen that people's frustration has boiled over into the destruction of public property and other unacceptable acts," Ibri Ga tells RFI.