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Soldiers Detain Burkina Faso Interim President and PM

by VOA News September 16, 2015

Soldiers from Burkina Faso's presidential guard detained the country's interim prime minister and president Wednesday and were said to be holding them hostage.

Military sources tell VOA's French-to-Africa Service that soldiers broke into a Cabinet meeting and arrested President Michel Kafando, Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida and other government ministers. The prisoners were not being allowed to leave, and soldiers were seen erecting barricades around the presidential palace.

The head of Burkina Faso's Transitional National Council, Cherif Sy, condemned the takeover. He said four people are being held prisoner, including the president and prime minister. 'I call on all patriots to gather to defend the motherland,'' he added.

The soldiers are not known to have made any demands.

Thousands of protesters, many of them youths, gathered at a public square in the capital, Ouagadougou, and some were seen marching toward the presidential palace.

The incident comes less than a month before Burkina Faso holds presidential and parliamentary elections. The run-up to the vote has been marked by tension between the interim government and the presidential guard, known as the RSP.

In a report this week, the country's national reconciliation commission called for the breakup of the RSP, which it called 'an army within an army.'

Burkina Faso's leader of 27 years, Blaise Compaore, was ousted by a popular uprising in October of last year.