Burkina Faso ‘coup’: Cabinet dissolved

In media interviews, he said he had no contact with Mr Compaore and would do everything to “avoid violence that could plunge the country into chaos”.

He would have been in power for another five years but the opposition feared that it would mean that he stayed in power for longer seeking re-election a couple of times .

QUIST-ARCTON: Burkina Faso’s borders are closed, and a curfew is enforced ahead of another night of uncertainty.

French President Francois Hollande said he strongly condemned the coup “because an electoral process was under way”.

Hello and welcome to the Telegraph’s live coverage of Burkino Faso and its coup.

What’s happened today so far?

Soldiers have fired shots in the main square of Ouagadougou in hopes of dispersing protesters calling for the leaders’ release.

The United States , France and African Union (AU) also condemned the coup in the former French colony.

The unrest comes days before the country’s first election since the ouster of Mr. Compaore, a former military officer and civilian president, who was forced out by popular uprising in 2014 after holding power for 27 years.

Now, the transitional government has been dissolved, the military unit said in a TV address by Lieutenant Colonel Mamadou Bamba, who said they had put an end to “the deviant regime of transition”.

On Thursday morning, a spokesman for the military appeared on TV and made a statement on behalf of the National Council for Democracy. “Wide-ranging talks are being held to form a government…to lead to inclusive and peaceful elections”, he added.

Interim parliament speaker Cheriff Sy said the move was “clearly a coup”.

“Members of the RSP burst into the room of the cabinet of ministers at around 1430 and took hostage the president of Burkina Faso Michel Kafando, the Prime Minister Yacouba Izaac Zida, the minister of public administration… and the minister of housing”, he said in a statement.

Also reacting to the incident, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General, who was furious at the deposition, called for the immediate release of the leaders.

Gilbert Diendere, a former chief-of-staff to Mr. Compaore, was named the head of the new junta called the National Council for Democracy.