Burkina Faso: amnesty deal proposed, coup leaders deem ‘shameful’

West African leaders trying to mediate an end to Burkina Faso’s coup proposed the return of the ousted interim president on Sunday in exchange for an amnesty for the elite troops who overthrew him this week.  But civil society groups – who played a major role in the uprising that toppled the country’s longtime ruler Blaise Compaore last year, and whose former chief of staff led the coup – branded the deal “shameful”.

They have forgotten the dead.

Balai Citoyen" (Civic Broom) civil society movement spokesman Guy-Herve Kam, referring to the at least 10 people killed and more than 110 wounded since the start of the coup.

The turmoil began Wednesday when the military arrested Burkina Faso’s interim president and prime minister and then installed a military general as head of state a day later. The power-grab less than a month before national elections prompted the African Union to suspend Burkina Faso, and prompted condemnation from the international community. Today, tensions around the talks came to a head when dozens of supporters of the military coup stormed the Laico hotel hosting the talks, chanting slogans and wrecking furniture.The plan will be presented to an extraordinary summit of the African Union on Tuesday. Burkina Faso has had a long history of instability since it gained independence from France in 1960.

We fully support the dialogue in which the African heads of state are working to restore the transition process. I warn those who seek to oppose it" to think again.

President Francois Hollande, of former colonial power France.

Africa Burkina Faso