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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”.

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

He will lead the National Council for Democracy, it said in a statement.

Burkina Faso’s new leader is a trusted aide of Compaore’s, General Gilbert Diendere.

The powerful presidential guard has repeatedly meddled in politics since Compaore was toppled in a popular uprising in October previous year .

As a youth-led continental movement working to promote the social and political development of Africa, the Young African Leaders Forum (YALF) rebukes the organizers of the coup, which started last Wednesday with the arrest of the interim president and prime minister.

Soldiers who stormed a cabinet meeting, plunging the poor West African country into chaos and uncertainty, detained President Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Yacouba Zida.

The military in Burkina Faso has taken to the airwaves to declare it now controls the country, confirming that a coup has taken place just weeks before national elections.

The new authorities, calling themselves the National Counsel for Democracy, have sealed the boarders of the country, cancelled flights, and imposed a curfew on citizens.

Soldiers from the elite presidential guard stormed into a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and abducted President Michel Kafando and ministers, disrupting a transition period due to end with polls on October 11.

As the two African mediators arrived on Friday, members of the elite Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) which spearheaded the coup fired in the air to disperse protestors trying to march on Revolution Square, the epicentre of last year’s revolt against Compaore.

But at a press conference, Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi did not give any details on a potential deal, instead saying only that a “good decision” would be announced Sunday.

Burkina Faso’s military has released the country’s interim President after he was detained during a coup that dissolved his government.

It’s unclear where the guards took the President, Prime Minister Isaac Zida and the other officials.

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”.