Burkina Faso army enters capital as coup leaders free president

Burkina Faso army troops have entered the capital Ouagadougou without resistance and begun negotiating the surrender of coup leaders, police said early on Tuesday as France’s ambassador tweeted that the interim president had been released. "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.

We demand that they put down their weapons and rejoin Camp Sangoule Lamizana.

National Armed Forces statement

The Colonel spoke after French ambassador Gilles Thibault tweeted that interim president Michel Kafando, who had been under house arrest, was now "at the French residence”. Kafando had been arrested on Wednesday as Burkina was plunged into turmoil when soldiers from the powerful presidential guard regiment loyal to ex-leader Blaise Compaore detained him and prime minister Isaac Zida, himself a former deputy commander of the unit. The RSP, an elite unit of 1,300 men, officially declared a coup the following day and installed General Gilbert Diendere, a close Compaore ally, as the country’s new leader. Burkina Faso’s army chiefs on Monday ordered coup leaders to lay down their arms as troops began marching from the provinces towards the capital Ouagadougou.

World Burkina Faso