The African Union suspended Burkina Faso and slapped sanctions on the leaders of its military coup Friday as troops tried to stop protesters from marching on the capital’s Revolution Square.
The 54-member bloc also imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on the junta's leaders, with Uganda's representative denouncing the kidnapping of Burkina's interim leaders on Wednesday as a "terrorist" act.
The latest coup was orchestrated by an elite army unit loyal to deposed president Blaise Compaore who claim that interim president Michel Kafando was excluding Compaore’s supporters from the upcoming October 11 polls.
“All measures taken by those who took power by force in Burkina Faso are null and void,” Uganda’s AU ambassador Mull Katende said.
The strong AU reaction came as Senegalese President Macky Sall, chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi met with coup leader General Gilbert Diendere - Compaore’s former chief of staff — in Ouagadougou.
“We must create a dynamic of national reconciliation… to allow the country to reposition itself on its path and on its march to democracy,” Sall said Friday night.
Diendere, meanwhile, said later that while the talks were “fruitful”, nothing had yet been agreed.
“I prefer not to get ahead of the iguana in the water, because we did not decide on anything for the moment,” he said, using a local expression.
As the pair of leaders arrived, members of the elite Compaore’s Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) that spearheaded the coup fired in the air to disperse protestors who were trying to march on Revolution Square, the epicentre of a popular uprising that overthrew Compaore in October 2014.
He was forced to flee the country after trying to extend his 27-year rule over the impoverished west African nation.
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