Burkina Faso military releases Interim President

President Muhammadu Buhari has condemn Wednesday’s detention of the Interim President, the Prime Minister and other ministers of the transitional government of Burkina Faso in an apparent coup d’etat.

Burkina Faso’s military yesterday said it had stripped Kafando of his functions and dissolved the government, seizing power in a coup.

In Burkina Faso it is reported that three people have died and at least 13 have been injured at the main hospital in Ouagadougou.

Earlier in the day Senegalese President Macky Sall and Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi held talks with coup leader General Gilbert Diendere. He said that the Presidential Guard is planning “to discuss all that with the concerned actors, notably the political parties and civil society organisations to establish a timetable that allows us to move towards presidential and parliamentary elections”.

“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the unconstitutional and forceful seizure of power”, Feltman said, before Kafando’s release had been secured. Fanny Noaro, a journalist speaking with Al Jazeera in Ouagadougou, confirmed that there “is no information about the transitional president and prime minister and there is no information if they are dead or alive”.

Hours later, the coup leaders announced that a military general and former aide to the former longtime president now leads Burkina Faso.

It’s believed that the presidential guard are supporters of Blaise Compaore.

The developments capped a dramatic year in the West African country where Compaore was ousted in a popular uprising last October after he tried to prolong his 27-year rule.

In the wake of the coup, protesters took to the streets to protest the military takeover amid reports 10 people had been shot dead by the presidential guards.

The Government of the Republic of Ghana has followed with grave concern the events unfolding in our sister country Burkina Faso from Wednesday 16th September, 2015 and the tension created due to the destabilisation of the transitional process.

Buhari said the world was looking forward to the October 11 election, revealing that Nigeria had already donated 20 vehicles to the country’s electoral body for the election.