Presidents call for return of Burkina Faso leader

  • 20/09/2015
Sengalese President Macky Sall (L) and Beninois President Thomas Boni Yayi (R) with Burkinabe transitional President Michel Kafando (C) at the president's residence in Burkina Faso (Reuters)
Sengalese President Macky Sall (L) and Beninois President Thomas Boni Yayi (R) with Burkinabe transitional President Michel Kafando (C) at the president's residence in Burkina Faso (Reuters)

Two African presidents mediating talks aimed at restoring Burkina Faso to its "march to democracy" after this week's coup have called for the return of interim president Michel Kafando.

Tensions remain high in Ouagadougou, where most shops are shuttered after a confrontation on Friday between elite troops and protesters.

Senegalese President Macky Sall, chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi have held crisis talks with coup leader General Gilbert Diendere, former chief of staff to ex-president Blaise Compaore who was toppled by a popular uprising last October.

Sall's office said the negotiators were working on a scenario "which could very well lead to a return" of the country's interim leader Kafando, who is under house arrest after being detained at the presidential palace by troops loyal to Compaore on Wednesday.

A foreign diplomatic source in Ouagadougou on Saturday confirmed this was the solution negotiators were looking for.

"What is envisaged - and what will be done - is maintaining Kafando as head of state and for the government to complete the transition," the source said. "Diendere should leave."

Sall and Boni Yayi met with Kafando at his home earlier on Saturday after two hours of talks with opposition leaders and civil society groups.

"We held in-depth discussions with President Kafando on the urgent situation and how to put in place a return to normality," Sall said after the meeting.

"All parties have been heard and we have a scheme that is taking place, and we hope that by the end of the afternoon we can be more explicit," he said, adding an emergency ECOWAS summit may be called.

At least 10 people have been killed and 113 wounded in clashes sparked by Wednesday's detention of the country's interim leaders, a source at Ouagadougou's main hospital told AFP.

Across the country, residents - many of them young - have set up roadblocks in protest at the coup, burning tyres and paralysing traffic.

AFP