Burkina Faso army revolt spreads to the south

Mutin-ous soldiers seized a key southern town in Bukina Faso as a revolt against the west African nation's veteran ruler Blaise Compaore spread on Sunday. Soldiers at a military garrison at Po near the Ghana border fired in the air and took over the town overnight, looting and seizing private vehicles, residents told AFP. Two people were injured in the firing, a hospital source said.
"The firing has intensified. The soldiers are currently in the town, some on foot and the others on motorbikes," a resident said Sunday. "The looting is still going on. The soldiers are taking the cars of those who venture outside in their vehicles," another said. Po, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) from the capital Ouagadougou, houses a training school for Burkinabe military officers and is a symbolic town for Compaore, who trained here. Compaore staged a 1983 coup from Po which brought his friend and comrade in arms Thomas Sankara to power. The former army captain himself took control of the country later in a 1987 military coup and has won all elections since. Authorities had imposed a night curfew on the capital Ouagadougou after civilians burnt government buildings.