Burkina Faso coup - as it happened

EU and UN demand army release detained president and prime minister as warning shots fired in capital

People demonstrate near the presidential palace after soldiers arrested Burkina Fasoís transitional president

• Military broadcasts statement announcing coup
• Transitional government 'dissolved'

• One man killed by gunshot, 60 injured
• 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
18.53

A summary of the day's events

  1. Burkina Faso's military declared it now controls the West African country.
  2. Lieutenant-Colonel Mamadou Bamba declared a new "National Democratic Council" in a TV broadcast a month before elections.
  3. Coup came almost a year after popular uprising ousted its long term president, Blaise Compaore.
  4. General Gilbert Diendere, who for three decades served as Mr Compaore's chief military adviser, was named as head of a military junta called National Council for Democracy.
  5. Gen Diendere had been head of the elite presidential guard under Mr Compaore. He said elections would happen but not in the timeframe set.
  6. The country's interim president and prime minister were arrested at the presidency during a ministerial meeting late on Wednesday. Later the military said they would be released.
  7. Soldiers fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of protesters gathered in Independence Square in the capital, Ouagadougou.
  8. Three people were believed to have been killed during the violence and at least 60 injured.
  9. Francois Hollande, the French president, condemned the "coup d'etat" on Thursday night.
  10. Land and air borders were closed and a 7pm-to-6am curfew was imposed.
  11. Ban Ki-moon urged the military leaders to "exercise restraint".

Thank you for following the Telegraph's live coverage. For a full story of the day's events, read Colin Freeman's story here.

18.27

Ban Ki-moon has urged the military leaders to "exercise restraint and ensure respect for the human rights and security of all Burkinabe citizens".

He condemned the coup "in the strongest possible terms"

"Those responsible for the coup d'etat and its consequences must be held accountable," his spokesman said.

17.04

Three people killed

BREAKING: At least three people have been killed in the violence, a senior source in the main hospital told Reuters.

16.31

More has come out about the man who has died of his injuries caused by a gunshot during coup-related violence. Agencies report that the 60 injured were taken into hospital for similar reasons.

There are also protests across the former French colony. In the second city of Bobo-Dioulasso, shops were closed and soldiers remained in their barracks, residents said.

15.36

BREAKING: Burkina coup leader tells French TV has no contact with ex-leader Mr Compaore, AFP writes.

"I have had no contact with him, before or after," said Gen Diendere in response to a question on whether Mr Compaore was involved in the coup, adding he had the full support of the army.

"All change of this type can lead to violence. I am conscious of that ... everything will be done to avoid violence that could plunge the country into chaos," Gen Diendere said on France 24 television.

14.54

What's happening?

One person has been killed and 60 people have been hurt in the coup violence, according to medics, AFP reports.

Earlier today we reported soldiers fired warning shots at a crowd in central Independence Square of the capital Ouagadougou.

Reuters journalists say soldiers were driving down streets beating and detaining protesters.

General Gilbert Diendere, who for three decades served as Compaore's chief military adviser and operated an intelligence network spanning West Africa, was named as the head of a military junta called the National Council for Democracy.

14.40

Why has there been a coup?

Paul Melly, associate fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, has told the Telegraph's Colin Freeman that the immediate trigger for the coup may have been a proposal earlier this week to dissolve the old presidential guard that was loyal to Mr Compaore.

The guard has remained more or less intact even though Mr Compaore went into exile last year, and apparently fears the loss of their privileges. As members of the old regime, they are also banned from participating in the elections that were due to take place in October.

"This shows how difficult it is to move to a lasting and fair democracy after you have had an authoritarian regime that was in power for so many years," said Mr Melly.

"Compaore was in for power for 27 years, and even though he won elections in more recent times, what has happened today shows how difficult it is for democracy to take place after that kind of rule. It leaves a lot of people from the old regime who fear for their positions and prospects if democracy takes hold, and that seems to be what is going on here."

Is the guard working with Compaore's blessing?

Mr Melly said it was unclear at present whether the presidential guard was acting with Mr Compaore's blessing, or was acting entirely independently. But he said anyone who tried to subvert democracy in the country would come under huge regional pressure.

"Quite apart from internal protests against the coup, which seem to have united most of Burkina Faso's politicians, nearly all Burkina Faso's neighbours in West Africa these days are democracies now and are signed up to basic democratic principles. The region is completely different to how it was in the 1970s or 1980s, when strongmen could more or less do as they liked.

"Burkina Faso is also landlocked and very dependent on its neighbours. Those neighbours could even impose banking restrictions as Burkina Faso is part of the CFA currency region. If the soldiers try to hang onto power it could get very difficult for them."

13.33

Hollande: No reason to intervene

French president Francois Hollande has said he sees "no reason" why the country would intervene in the coup despite his condemnation.

There are currently 220 French troops in the capital Ouagadougou as part of a regional force fighting extremists in west Africa.

"France has friendly relations with Burkina Faso and we cannot just allow what is happening today," he added.

"[We] have no reason to intervene," he said as France told its nationals to remain at home.

13.15

Why a coup? Serious pre-election security situation

The interim president and prime minister arrested are in good health and will be released, General Gilbert Diendere told French magazine, Jeune Afrique weekly.

The general told the magazine the coup was launched because of the country's serious "pre-election security situation". Elections were due to be held next month.

13.05

This military coup comes almost a year after a popular uprising in Burkina Faso ousted its long term president, Blaise Compaore, writes Colin Freeman, Chief Foreign Correspondent.

Colin Freeman

But the country's still lives in the shadow of its former leader, who was an unlikely mix of domestic strongman, regional trouble-stirrer and occasional diplomatic Mr Fixit.

Mr Compaore was aged just 36 when he took power in Burkina Faso, a landlocked French colony previously known as Upper Volta, and whose present title translates roughly as "Nation of Incorruptibles".

He allegedly received training in the 1980s at the late Col Muammar Gaddafi's "World Revolutionary Centre", a school once described as the "Harvard and Yale of a whole generation of African revolutionaries." Among his fellow students were the Liberian warlords Charles Taylor, now serving 50 years in a British jail for war crimes, and Taylor's late ally Foday Sankoh, who led Sierra Leone's notorious Revolutionary United Front.

A man runs after hearing gunfire in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

In 2000, Mr Compaore was accused by a British diplomat, Stephen Pattison, of sending mercenaries to fight alongside rebels in Sierra Leone against United Nations peacekeepers, in exchange for diamonds. Two years later, he was accused of funding rebels in the northern Ivory Coast.

He always denied the claims, however, and in more recent years, managed to re-invent himself as a regional mediator, acting as a broker in the peace talks during the conflict in Mali in 2012-13, where the north of the country was overrun by Ansar Dine, a Tuareg rebel movement briefly allied with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Ansar Dine representatives were invited for peace talks in the Burkinabe capital, Ougadougou, while Mr Compaore also offered his services in negotiations to free several Europeans held hostage by AQIM.

While his reputation as a mediator may not be that of Nelson Mandela or Kofi Annan, he proved as good as his word, despatching envoy to drive hundreds of miles across the Sahara's most remote and lawless stretches to hold talks with kidnap gangs on several occasions.

While there was often speculation that a prisoner releases or large ransom ultimately cemented the deals, the envoy could easily have been killed or kidnapped himself had Mr Compaore's contacts with AQIM been anything less than solid.

A man on a motorcycle looks at Burkina Faso soldiers standing guard near Nation Square in Ouagadougou
12.52

Who is Blaise Compaore?

Blaise Compaore, the former president, had wanted extend his 27-year rule last year as he was coming to the end of his second five-year term.

Despite constitutional limits introduced in 2005, the country's legislature was going to assess a proposed amendment that would allow Mr Compaore to run for re-election in the following month.

He would have been in power for another five years but the opposition feared that it would mean that he stayed in power for longer seeking re-election more than once.

The former president was 36 when he seized power in a 1987 coup after Thomas Sankara, his former friend, was removed from power and assassinated.

A person holds two bullet casings that were fired in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

On October 31, he resigned as president and fled to Cote d'Ivoire with his family. Amnesty's report from January this year says the family then went to Morocco before returning to Cote d'Ivoire in mid-December last year.

12.15

General Gilbert Diendere, Mr 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 borders have been closed.

General Gilbert Diendere, a one-time powerful aide to deposed Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaore, was appointed head of a new ruling authority set up on September 17
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."

Interactive: Burkina Faso locator

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.

People demonstrate near the presidential palace after soldiers arrested Burkina Fasoís transitional president
People demonstrate near the presidential palace after soldiers arrested the transitional president in Burkina Faso

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.

Interim President of Burkina Faso Michel Kafando (R) and Prime Minister Lt. Col. Isaac Zida
Interim President of Burkina Faso Michel Kafando (R) and Prime Minister Lt. Col. Isaac Zida

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.