Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore has been detained at a military camp by mutinying soldiers, two security sources and a West African diplomat said on Monday, following heavy gunfire around his residence on Sunday night in the capital Ouagadougou.
Several armored vehicles of the presidential fleet, riddled with bullets, could be seen near the president's residence on Monday morning. One was spattered with blood. Residents of the president's neighborhood reported heavy gunfire overnight.
The government had denied rumors on Sunday that a coup was underway as gunfire rang out for hours from several military camps, with mutinying soldiers demanding more support for their fight against militants.
Government sources could not immediately be reached on Monday. Protesters had come out to support the mutineers on Sunday and ransacked the headquarters of Kabore's political party. The government declared a curfew from 8 p.m. GMT to 5:30 a.m. GMT until further notice and closed schools for two days.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the government said separately that talks were ongoing with the mutinying soldiers.
A spokesperson for the mutineers said they were demanding "appropriate" resources and training for the army in its fight against militants linked to the Daesh and al-Qaida terrorist groups and the resignation of the army and intelligence chiefs.
Frustration in the West African gold-producing country has grown in recent months over deteriorating security. The deaths of 49 military police in a militant attack in November prompted violent protests calling for Kabore to step down.
Demonstrators in the streets of the capital Ouagadougou on Sunday urged the soldiers to go further, chanting, "Free the country!"
The mutiny underlines the threat posed by growing insurgencies across West Africa's Sahel region, a semi-arid strip of land beneath the Sahara Desert.
The militants have seized control of swathes of territory across Burkina Faso and its neighbors, Mali and Niger. In some cases, they force residents to abide by their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
Heavy gunfire was first heard around 5 a.m. on Sunday at Ouagadougou's Sangoule Lamizana camp, which houses a prison whose inmates include soldiers involved in a failed 2015 coup attempt, Reuters reporters said.
Hundreds of people later came out in support of the mutineers. At the Lamizana camp, where a crowd of about 100 sang the national anthem and chanted, the soldiers responded by firing into the air. It was not clear whether this was to show support for the demonstrators or to disperse them.
In downtown Ouagadougou, near the Place de la Nation, police fired tear gas to disperse around 300 protesters.
Soldiers also fired into the air at an air base close to Ouagadougou International Airport, according to Reuters reporters. The U.S. Embassy also reported gunfire at three other military bases in Ouagadougou and at bases in the northern towns of Kaya and Ouahigouya.
Elsewhere in Ouagadougou, protesters burned and looted the headquarters of Kabore's People's Movement for Progress (MPP), a Reuters reporter said.
The spokesperson for the mutineers, who addressed reporters in front of Lamizana camp, called for better welfare for wounded soldiers and their families.
