Putschists free Burkina president, PM

Burkina Faso putschists freed the president and the PM after the army entered the capital to negotiate their surrender.

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Burkina Faso putschists freed the president and the prime minister Tuesday after the army entered the capital to negotiate their surrender, but the coup leader called for the troops to leave the city.

Witnesses said cheering crowds greeted the military units along their march to the capital days after the coup launched on October 16 by elite troops loyal to ousted president Blaise Compaore.

“All units (of the army mobilised on Monday to march on the capital) reached Ouagadougou” overnight, Colonel Serge Alain Ouedraogo, deputy head of the Burkinabe police, told AFP.

“We must now secure the surrender of the (coup leaders) without gunfire or bloodshed,” he said.

With domestic and international pressure growing on the coup leaders to lay down their arms, they freed the country's interim president and prime minister, whose seizure on Wednesday kicked off the putsch.

French ambassador Gilles Thibault tweeted that interim president Michel Kafando, who had been under house arrest, was now “at the French residence”.

And a police source and a member of interim prime minister Isaac Zida's entourage told AFP that Zida, held at the presidential palace since the coup, had been allowed to return to his official residence.

But coup leader General Gilbert Diendere, head of the powerful RSP presential guard regiment, called for the regular army to go.

“We are continuing discussions to make them leave,” he told AFP, adding that soldiers who had entered the capital “have been negatively influenced by certain people. They have been misinformed.”

Soldiers from the powerful RSP loyal to Compaore detained the interim leaders on Wednesday, plunging Burkina Faso into turmoil just weeks ahead of an election planned for October 11.

The RSP, a unit of 1 300 men, officially declared a coup the following day and installed Diendere, a close Compaore ally, as the country's new leader.

At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured in protests sparked by the coup, ahead of what would have been the first elections since Compaore was ousted in a popular revolt last October after trying to extend his 27-year grip on power.

The putsch sparked an international uproar, with former colonial power France urging coup leaders to surrender and an African delegation attempting to mediate in the crisis.

French President Francois Hollande demanded “all those involved in the putsch to immediately lay down their arms and hand over power to the legitimate authorities -- or face the consequences.”

He warned that France, which wields significant influence in its former African colonies, could also “apply sanctions to those opposing the holding of regular elections”.

A similar call was issued by the presidents of Niger and Chad, who urged the RSP to “return to the barracks” and hand back power to the transitional administration.

And European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday in Brussels that “the EU calls for every effort to be made to avoid armed clashes. It demands that the RSP lay down their arms immediately.”

Following the coup, Senegal's President Macky Sall, the rotating head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), undertook three days of mediation, to come up on Sunday with a 12-point plan to end the crisis.

The deal provided for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held by November 22 at the latest, and crucially allowed for pro-Compaore candidates to take part after they complained about being excluded from the October vote.

ECOWAS mediators said the fate of the RSP should be decided by a future Burkinabe leader.

They also proposed an amnesty for those behind the coup -- a suggestion that has sparked widespread anger on the streets.

Diendere on Monday had said he would honour the ECOWAS proposal and hand over power.

But Kafando told France's RFI radio he had “serious reservations” about the accord and was sceptical that any solution would be achieved during an emergency ECOWAS summit in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said he had not been invited to the Nigerian capital.

In Ouagadougou, residents were critical of the ECOWAS proposal and furious at the suggestion of amnesty for the presidential guards.

“We don't trust ECOWAS anymore. We want to get out there and take our destiny in our hands,” said Adama Traore, an office worker in his 30s.

“The bodies are not even buried and (they want) an amnesty. We shall barricade everything,” he said.

Civil society activists behind the uprising that toppled Compaore have also condemned the ECOWAS proposals, with the main Balai Citoyen (Civic Broom) group branding the deal “shameful”.

“We cannot accept the amnesty. There are comrades who have fallen and ECOWAS is telling us to extend an amnesty,” said Mady Ouedraogo, a spokesman for Balai Citoyen.

AFP