Off the wire
• Urgent: U.S. stocks end higher ahead of Fed decision  • Amnesty official urges Europe to reach consensus on tackling migrant crisis  • Three presidential candidates have most to gain in second Republican debate: poll  • News Analysis: Italy auto sector gets good news, but overall economic impact still muted  • Feature: Idle Kenyan pupils take up work as teachers strike stretches on  • Danish taxi drivers protest against Uber  • Kenya seeks to expand export sector with launch of blueprint  • Audit reveals Kenya has near 140 tonnes of ivory stockpile  • Hungary expels nine men for illegal crossing: court decision  • Chicago wheat, corn, soybean lower on USDA crop planting report  
You are here: 　 Home

Tension mounts in Burkina Faso after president detained by guards

Xinhua, September 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Tension mounts in Burkina Faso as the president and prime minister of the country were detained by guards loyal to ousted leader Blaise Compaore, weeks before the elections.

Media reports said that the guards fired gunshots Wednesday to disperse demonstrators near the presidential palace who were gathering to condemn their actions.

Sources told Xinhua it is difficult to access the presidential palace which is controlled by elements of the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), the former guards of Blaise Compaore.

The guards has not explained reasons for their actions.

The chairman of the National Transitional Council, Cherrif Sy condemned these acts with the "strongest terms" in a statement.

"Duty calls us because the nation is at risk," he said, adding that the president, the prime minister and several ministers are still in the hands of the guards.

"Dialogue attempts are underway," he said.

Civil society organizations started a rally in the Revolution Square to denounce the actions.

Several streets of the Burkina Faso capital are blocked up, and people rushed to return home before dusk, a witness said.

The National Reconciliation and Reforms Commission (CRNR) recommended Monday dissolving the RSP, the praetorian guards of former President Blaise Compaore, ousted from power in October 2014 by street uprising.

The group of more than 1,300 men, considered the best trained troops of the Burkinabe army, was blamed in several cases of murder and disappearances under the former regime. Endit