A mutiny in Burkina Faso spread Monday as police joined soldiers on a rampage in a northern town, and students staged violent protests in the west against President Blaise Compaore's regime. Soldiers and paramilitary police poured into the streets of the northern town of Kaya, firing shots into the air, and torching the home of an army regiment chief and ransacking that of a regional officer, residents told AFP by telephone.
It was the first time police had taken part in the uprising that began in the capital Ouagadougou late Thursday. An official said they were demanding their wages and were to be paid Monday. Kaya was the fourth town to be affected in the landlocked west African state after Ouagadougou and the small centres of Po and Tenkodogo in the south.
Meanwhile, protesting youths in Koudougou in western Burkina Faso also turned to violence, burning down the premises of the ruling party and a home of ex-prime minister Tertius Zongo, witnesses said. The demonstration was initially a peaceful one by students and school pupils, residents said, but it degenerated. The home of the headmaster of the town's main school was also burned down.
"We want to make the ruling power... look into our concerns" and establish "truth and justice for Justin Zongo and all victims of repression," the students said in a statement sent to AFP. They were referring to a student who died in a February demonstration, killed by police according to his relatives while authorities said the boy was ill. The latest wave of protests erupted Thursday as mutineers ran riot in the capital, demanding better pay and housing and food benefits. They "have not received their pay for the month of March," said a source close to the general staff. "They also want their bonuses to be aligned on those of the presidential guard," he said, adding that "the wages will be paid today."
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