Burkina Faso guards detain president, prime minister

In this Nov. 4, 2014 file photo, Burkina Faso Prime Minister Lt. Col. Yacouba Isaac Zida , center, leaves a government building after meeting with political leaders in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Soldiers detained Burkina Faso’s transitional president and prime minister Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, raising fears of a coup just weeks before the country was to hold an election to replace its longtime leader who was ousted in a popular uprising late last year. AP Photo

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso—Burkina Faso’s presidential guard on Wednesday detained the interim president and prime minister, plunging the west African country into uncertainty just weeks before the first elections since the ouster of ex-leader Blaise Compaore.

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The detention of the nation’s transitional leaders triggered immediate street protests outside the presidential palace where the men were being held. Gunfire pierced the air as soldiers tried to disperse several hundred demonstrators, an AFP reporter saw.

It was impossible to immediately verify whether anyone had been wounded.

International condemnation was swift, with the United Nations and the African Union demanding the top officials be released immediately.

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Members of Compaore’s powerful Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) “burst into the cabinet room at 2:30 p.m. and kidnapped the President of Burkina Faso Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Isaac Zida, and two ministers (Augustin Loada and Rene Bagoro),” interim parliament speaker Cheriff Sy said in a statement sent to AFP.

Broadcasts by Radio France Internationale and the private Omega radio station were cut. Omega boss Alpha Barry told France 24 television that RSP troops had interrupted programming and threatened to kill staff if they did not stop transmitting.

Protesters marching on the presidential palace in the capital Ouagadougou to condemn the hostage-taking scattered as bursts of gunfire broke out around 7:30 p.m. (1930 GMT). By 2100 GMT, the occasional shot could still be heard, the AFP correspondent at the scene said.

The crowds had gathered with whistles and vuvuzelas near the palace, shouting “Down with the RSP.”

Sy called the detention of the president and prime minister “a serious attack on the republic.”

“I call on all patriots to mobilize to defend the motherland,” he said.

“Duty calls us because the Burkinabe nation is in danger. We call on the solidarity that active forces, political forces, civil society and the international community have with all the people of Burkina Faso to defeat this operation.”

Compaore was toppled in October 2014 and fled into exile in Ivory Coast after a popular uprising triggered by his attempt to extend his 27-year rule.

A transitional government has been charged with running the poverty-stricken Sahel nation until presidential and legislative elections are held, the first round of which is to take place on October 11.

While the RSP’s demands were not yet known on Wednesday, it has repeatedly tried to disrupt the ongoing transition.

On Monday the country’s National Reconciliation and Reforms Commission recommended that the 1,300-man security force, considered the landlocked country’s best troops, be disbanded.

‘Say no to the coup’

In a joint statement, the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded “the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a separate statement, said he was “outraged” by the developments. “This incident is a flagrant violation of Burkina Faso’s constitution and transitional charter,” he said.

UN envoy for west Africa Mohamed Ibn Chambas was currently in Ouagadougou and working closely with African governments to support and safeguard the transition, the statement added.

France also urged the leaders’ release.

“France is worried by the developments that have occurred in Burkina Faso” and “strongly condemns any use of force,” foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

On the ground, the Balai Citoyen (“Civic Broom”) movement, which was at the forefront of last year’s anti-Compaore protests, called for protesters to gather to “say no to the coup d’etat under way,” an appeal that was shared widely on social networks.

State television was broadcasting its usual cartoons and a football match. Its buildings have traditionally been guarded by the RSP.

A local journalist, contacted by AFP, said employees had left the broadcaster’s offices as RSP reinforcements arrived.

The RSP sparked a brief political crisis in June by demanding the resignation of Zida, an army lieutenant-colonel and number two in the powerful regiment, who had publicly called for the unit to be dissolved in the interest of national security.

Supporters of Compaore are banned from standing in the upcoming elections under a controversial election law passed in April, which made anyone who supported “unconstitutional change” ineligible to run.