KOUDOUGOU, Burkina Faso — A two-month wave of protests that has rocked the country touched down on Wednesday in this city 60 miles west of the capital as merchants set fire to the mayor’s home, the police headquarters and several other buildings. They were protesting an official’s decision to shut about 40 stores in Koudougou’s central market over unpaid rent.

Burkina, an impoverished West African nation, depends on shipments from neighboring Ivory Coast, and the lengthy political crisis there has forced prices up, cutting into incomes and living standards. Two weeks ago, soldiers in the capital, Ouagadougou, upset over unpaid housing allowances, went on a rampage of looting, prompting the country’s ruler, Blaise Compaoré, who has held office for 24 years, to fire his government.

Also Wednesday, hundreds of cotton farmers marched in the country’s second largest city, Bobo-Dioulassou, angry over low prices.

Students, who touched off the nationwide protests here Feb. 22 after the unexplained death of a young man in police custody, joined in Wednesday’s protests.

“There are economic difficulties, you can’t ignore them,” the mayor of Koudougou, Seydou Zagre, said in a telephone interview.

“But it is not by destroying the little we have that we will find solutions,” Mr. Zagre said.

The opposition has planned a large-scale protest in the capital for Saturday.

Hervé Taoko reported from Koudougou, Burkina Faso, and Adam Nossiter from Dakar, Senegal.