[AfricaRealities.com] Burkina Faso coup: military says it now controls country after arresting leaders: live - Telegraph
coup: military says it now controls country after arresting leaders: live
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EU and UN demand army release detained president and prime minister as warning shots reportedly fired in capital. Follow the latest developments here
• Military broadcasts statement announcing coup
• Military says transitional government dissolved
• Troops fire warning shots in Ouagadougou central square as crowds gather
• Transitional president and PM detained
• Country was due to hold elections on October 11 to end months of transition after president ousted
Latest
12.15
General Gilbert Diendere, Compaore's former chief-of-staff, has been appointed head of a new ruling authority set up today after the country's presidential guard declared a coup, AFP reports.
He will lead the National Council for Democracy, it said in a statement.
A curfew is in place across the country from 7pm (8pm BST) until 6am tomorrow and land and air border have been closed.
11.47
Francois Hollande, the French president, has condemned the coup and called for the immediate release of those arrested.
"The president firmly condemns the coup d'Etat that has taken place in Burkina Faso," the French presidency said in a statement.
"He calls for the immediate release of all people arrested, the reinstatement of transitional authorities and the resumption of the electoral process."
11.38
Hello and welcome to the Telegraph's live coverage of Burkino Faso and its coup. 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.
In the announcement aired early on Thursday on national television and radio, the statement said that the transitional government had been dissolved.
The statement came a day after members of the elite presidential guard unit of the military arrested the transitional president and prime minister.
What's happened today so far?
Soldiers in the capital, Ouagadougou, fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of protesters gathered in Independence Square, a Reuters witness said.
Sporadic gunfire continued to ring out from other areas of the capital.
Burkina Faso was due to hold elections on October 11 that many hoped would strengthen democracy. The transitional government came to power after the president of 27 years, Blaise Compaore, was ousted late last year in a public uprising.
In the television address, Lieutenant-Colonel Mamadou Bamba declared a new "National Democratic Council" had put an end "to the deviant regime of transition" in the west African state and Burkina's interim president had been stripped of his powers.
"The National Transition Council has been... dissolved... Wide-ranging talks are being held to form a government... to lead to inclusive and peaceful elections," he added.
Interim parliament speaker Cheriff Sy told the French radio station RFI that what was happening was "clearly a coup" and called on the people to "immediately rise up" in response.
On Wednesday, members of the presidential guard who are loyal to Compaore burst into a cabinet meeting and seized president Michel Kafando, Isaac Zida, the prime minister, and two ministers.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the EU have condemned the leaders' detention and called for their immediate release.
Compaore was toppled in October 2014 and fled into exile in Ivory Coast after an uprising triggered by his attempt to extend his 27-year rule.
Posted by: Nzinink <nzinink@yahoo.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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