Burkina Faso Transitional Government Dissolves After Military Coup
Members of the Burkina Faso military announced this morning that the military had seized power from the West African nation’s transitional government in a coup, unseating the interim president and prime minister and dissolving the government in the process.
Lt. Col. Mamadou Bamba read a statement announcing the coup on national television, while wearing fatigues and a military cap, the Associated Press reports. Wednesday night, the prime minister and president were arrested by soldiers and the presidential palace was barricaded.
The leaders of the coup announced that General Gilbert Diendere, a member of the presidential guard to former president Blaise Compaore, will lead Burkina Faso.
Compaore resigned last year after a popular uprising against his attempt to amend Burkina Faso’s constitution to allow himself to extend his term, which had already spanned 27 years. Compaore fled to the Ivory Coast after protests that included the burning of the country’s Parliamentary building, and the transitional government came to power shortly after that.
Bamba’s statement announcing the coup condemned the transitional government’s electoral code, which prohibited member’s of Compaore’s party and supporters of his constitutional amendment from running in elections next month, the AP reports. Bamba also announced the closing of Burkina Faso’s borders and a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
Roch Kabore, the country’s leading presidential candidate, condemned the coup, calling it an attempt to reinstall the old Burkina Faso regime, Forbes reports. Kabore’s statement read in part:
The Burkinabe people have already made huge sacrifices and paid the price in blood during the popular uprising of October 2014. As one, we must again mobilise to block the way of this new abuse of power which is a renewed attempt to reinstate the old order and resist the people’s desire to establish democracy and justice.
International leaders also expressed disapproval. “The United States strongly condemns any attempt to seize power through extra-constitutional means or resolve internal political disagreements using force,” said U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby.
