Buhari condemns Burkina Faso coup, demands restoration of civil authority

Burkina Faso’s interim President Michel Kafando has been freed and is in good health, the new junta leaders say.

Burkina Faso hosts French special forces and is an important ally of France and the United States in the fight against Islamic militants in West Africa. On Wednesday night, soldiers stormed into one local radio station which was covering protests by youths heading towards the Presidential Palace where Interim President Michel Kafando, Prime Minister Yacoub Isaac Zida and ministers were being held, disrupted the broadcast and burnt some materials.

The African Union has announced the suspension of Burkina Faso, following the coup by the Presidential Guard Thursday.

At least three people have been killed and 60 injured in violence across the country.

Talks are supposed to begin soon in Ouagadougou with the mediation of Senegal’s President Macky Sall and President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin.

October 11th of this year was slated to hold nationwide elections and move Burkina Faso into a democratic government.

United Nations and the USA condemned the act which installed General Gilbert Dienderen as the new leader.

Bamba’s statement announcing the coup condemned the transitional government’s electoral code, which prohibited member’s of Compaore’s party and supporters of his constitutional amendment from running in elections next month, the AP reports.

As they arrived, members of the elite presidential unit that spearheaded the coup fired in the air to disperse protestors who were trying to march on Revolution Square, the epicentre of a popular uprising that overthrew Compaore in October 2014.

The general said the military staged the coup because the country’s political process was biased.

“There is a critical lack of dialogue among actors, and this will negatively affect national unity and cohesion”, Sall warned in remarks late Friday night after a full day of meetings in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Jensen said that democracy in Burkina Faso was essential to stability in the country and the entire Sahel region and Denmark would continue to monitor the situation.

The deputy head of the African Union, Erastus Mwencha, demanded Thursday that the military leaders immediately hand back power to the transitional government.