Soldiers detain Burkina president

The president of Burkina Faso was arrested yesterday and detained by soldiers along with members of his cabinet, security sources said, one day after troops staged a mutiny in the jihadist-wracked country. Soldiers rose up at several army bases across the West African state on Sunday, demanding the sacking of the military top brass and more resources to fight the Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2015. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, in power since 2015 and who won re-election in 2020 vowing to prioritise the fight against the insurgency, has faced rising public anger about failure to stop the bloodshed. "President Kabore, the head of parliament and the ministers are effectively in the hands of the soldiers" at the Sangoule Lamizana barracks in the capital Ouagadougou, a security source said. The situation was tense and confused in the capital, where mobile internet had been cut on Sunday, making it difficult to verify rumours of a coup in progress.