Burkina Faso coup leaders refuse to disarm, citing promise of protection

Burkina Faso troopers met little resistance on Tuesday as they entered a presidential guard camp within the capital the place members of the elite unit have been holding out after a coup, an army officer stated.

“Negotiations are under way for his surrender to the authorities”, the government said on state television.

The fresh gunfire came as the army announced it was giving a “a last chance” to the coup plotters to “avoid a confrontation”, military spokesman Lieutenant Aziz Ouedraogo said. Additionally, Congresswoman Bass said the Presidential Security Regiment must end the violence immediately and tend to its primary mission to protect and defense the nation.

“I am willing to turn myself over to face justice”, he told AFP Tuesday.

Following Compaore’s removal previous year, interim President Michel Kafando was appointed with the stated aim of supervising the country’s democratic transition.

Under a peace deal, the presidential guard was supposed to disarm but they refused.

In a communique issued Monday, the government lashed out at Diendere’s presidential guard which was disbanded last week after the short-lived coup.

“I have not see any bodies”, he said.

As they arrived, members of the presidential guard fired in the air to disperse anti-putsch protesters who tried to march on the capital’s iconic Revolution Square.

He said around 300 soldiers had ringed the barracks, adding there “have been no clashes we are just positioned and awaiting orders”.

A RSP source told AFP that the process of disarming had been held up because a government pledge to ensure the safety of the putschists and their families was not being respected.

Ahead of the assault, Ouagadougou airport was closed as troops locked down the area, deploying armoured cars and pickup trucks throughout the neighbourhood and stationing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at several intersections.

What began as trickle drops, quickly hardened with coup leader Diendere refusing to give up under pressure from ECOWAS negotiators who stressed a zero tolerance to military regimes.