A mutiny by soldiers that started in Burkina Faso's capital last week has spread across the country.
Schools in the town of Kaya, north of the capital Ouagadougou, have closed after soldiers shot into the air from last night until early today.
“There was a panic in town and we have closed classes as precaution measure,” one teacher said.
Soldiers in Ouagadougou protested last week over payment of housing and daily subsistence allowances, leading to days of looting. The incident prompted President Blaise Compaore to announce that he was dissolving his government and naming a new army chief and a new head of presidential security.
The southern town of Po was calm today after unrest yesterday. Po has a training centre for senior officers and their commandos.
In recent months, Burkina Faso has seen several episodes of unrest. On April 8th, people took to the streets of Ouagadougou to protest over soaring prices of basic foods.
In March, students torched government buildings in several cities in anger at a young man’s death in custody. The government said he had meningitis, but accusations of mistreatment have fuelled deadly protests, killing at least six others.
Mr Compaore, who seized power in a violent coup 23 years ago, was re-elected by a landslide in a November vote rejected by the opposition as being rigged. The former army captain took power in 1987 in the small West African nation after the former leader was gunned down in his office.
Burkina Faso is near the bottom of the United Nations’ Human Development Index, which measures general well-being, ranked 161 out of 169 nations. It has high rates of unemployment and illiteracy, and most people get by on subsistence agriculture.
AP