Coup: Osinbajo to represent Buhari in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso coup leaders agreed to return to their barracks and said they would restore the deposed president to power, signing a deal with the army that apparently defuses a tense standoff sparked by last week’s putsch. “The transition is back and is resuming the exercise of power”, Kafando told journalists.

Diendere greeted the heads of state from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Niger at the airport earlier in the day, giving the impression he was still in charge, but he did not attend the ceremony at a conference center at which Kafando spoke, reports Reuters.

“We are continuing discussions to make them leave”, he told AFP, adding that soldiers who had entered the capital “have been negatively influenced by certain people”. The peace deal was formally presented to Mogha Naba, leader of Burkina Faso’s majority Mossi ethnic tribe, who signaled his approval.

Facing this pressure, coup and presidential guard unit leader Gen. Gilbert Diendere said Monday that he had released Prime Minister Isaac Zida. They announced a plan late Sunday that calls for new elections by the end of November.

Burkina Faso’s coup leader yesterday said negotiations are ongoing, even though a deadline given by the military for the junta to disarm has expired.

Amid cheers and the national anthem, Burkina Faso’s interim president took charge of the country again today a week after a military general and his supporters overthrew him and his transitional government.

West African mediators want interim President Michael Kafando to be reinstalled until elections can be held.

Diendere, who is a close ally of deposed long-term president Blaise Compaore, already had vowed to hand over power to a civilian transitional government, but not to the army. Lawmakers barred former members of the Compaore regime from seeking election – triggering the coup led by Diendere, a close Compaore ally.

The statement, issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo would be among six ECOWAS leaders to participate in the event. Kafando has sought shelter at the residence of the French ambassador here.

Karim Sama, a founding member of the pro-democracy group, Balai Citoyen, or Citizen’s Broom, said that activists opposed any amnesty for the soldiers who carried out the coup and wanted the presidential guard to be disbanded.