OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso —

       Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore is being held by mutinous soldiers, two of the rebellious soldiers told the Associated Press by phone early Monday. They did not say where Kabore was being held, but said he was in a safe place.

       Gunshots were heard late Sunday near the president’s residence, and in the early hours of Monday a battle took place at the presidential palace while a helicopter flew overhead. The roads of the capital, Ouagadougou, were empty Sunday night except for checkpoints heavily guarded by mutinous soldiers.

       State news station RTB was heavily guarded Monday morning.

       Fighting began Sunday when some soldiers took control of the Lamizana Sangoule military barracks in Ouagadougou. Civilians drove into town in a show of support for the rebellion but were broken up by security forces firing tear gas. The mutiny came a day after a public demonstration calling for Kabore’s resignation, the latest in a series of anti-Kabore protests as anger has mounted over his government’s handling of Burkina Faso’s Islamic insurgency.

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       The government has not made any statements since Sunday, when Minister of Defense Aime Barthelemy Simpore told RTB that a few barracks had been affected by unrest not only in Ouagadougou but other cities. He denied that the president had been detained by the mutineers, even though Kabore’s whereabouts were unknown.

       “Well, it’s a few barracks. There are not too many,” Simpore said.

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       Kabore has led Burkina Faso since being elected in 2015 after a popular uprising ousted longtime strongman President Blaise Compaore, who was in power for nearly three decades. Kabore was reelected in November 2020 for another five-year term, but frustration has been growing at his inability to stem the spread of jihadist violence across the country. Attacks linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State are escalating, killing thousands and displacing more than an estimated 1.5 million people.

       The military has suffered losses since the extremist violence began in 2016. In December, more than 50 security personnel were killed in the Sahel region and nine were killed in the Center North region in November.

       Angry soldiers told the AP that the government was disconnected from its forces in the field, that their colleagues were dying and that they wanted military rule. The soldiers put a man on the phone who said they were seeking better working conditions amid the escalating fight against Islamic militants. Among their demands are increased personnel and better care for the wounded and the families of the dead.

       About 100 military members have been planning the takeover since August, according to one of the mutinous soldiers. The organizers never met in the same location more than twice and always met outside the capital, he said. They used messaging apps such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegraph to plan, he said.

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       Regional experts say that the Kabore government was overstretched but that it’s unlikely the mutiny will change anything.

       “Burkina Faso’s army is profoundly ill-equipped and unprepared for the war it’s asked to fight. It’s out of its depth. Its frustration with an equally out-of-its-depth government is understandable,” said Michael Shurkin, a former political analyst at the CIA and director of global programs at 14 North Strategies, a business intelligence consultancy based in Dakar, Senegal. “Regrettably, this [rebellion] is unlikely to improve anything.”

       With the weekend protests, Burkina Faso’s population was showing signs of support for a takeover.

       “People are tired with this situation of insecurity. Every day people are killed. In Burkina, there are areas that can’t be accessed. We have lost a big part of our territory,” said Jean-Baptiste Ilboudou a civilian near the military base where gunshots were heard.

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       The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS, which already has suspended Mali and Guinea in the past 18 months over military coups, issued a statement of support for Burkina Faso’s embattled president and urged dialogue with the mutineers.

       Earlier this month, authorities arrested a group of soldiers accused of participating in a foiled coup plot. It was not immediately known whether there was any connection between those soldiers and the ones leading the current move against the president. Military prosecutors said nine soldiers and two civilians were being held in connection with the foiled plot.

       Burkina Faso has seen its share of coup attempts and military takeovers. In 1987, Compaore came to power by force. And in 2015, soldiers loyal to him attempted to overthrow the transitional government put into place after his ouster.

       The army was ultimately able to restore the transitional authorities, who led the country until Kabore won election and took office.