Off the wire
• Beijing sewage plant fined for faking environment figures  • Migrants begin boarding Hungarian buses at Croatian border  • Dismissal of senior FIFA official no threat to 2018 World Cup  • Libyan lawmakers to rejoin parliament after boycott: UN  • Chinese premier meets with French finance minister  • U.S. stocks open sharply lower after Fed decision  • Chinese top legislator meets Zimbabwean guests  • China makes progress fighting domestic, international cyber crime  • Chinese top political advisor meets Zimbabwean guests  • Burkina Faso's parliament speaker declares himself president  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Burkina Faso's coup leaders free transition president, open borders

Xinhua, September 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Burkina Faso's captial Ouagadougou remained clouded in a state of uneasy calm on Friday, as coup leaders released the interim president and reopened borders.

In a statement, the National Council for Democracy (CND), the coup leaders' self-proclaimed authority, on Friday issued a statement announcing the release of Transition President Michel Kafando and several ministers, whom they had detained during the military coup.

However, the statement signed by CND leader Gen. Gilbert Diendere did not specify if Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida was among the "released ministers."

Also on Friday, the coup leaders announced the reopening of the country's borders that had been closed since Thursday.

"Land and aerial borders have been opened effective this Friday at 12 p.m. (local time)," the putschists announced in a statement read on national television.

The statement said on Thursday, CND, led by its president Gen. Diendere, met with a delegation of international mediators at the request of the International Support and Follow-up Group for the Transition in Burkina Faso.

"The National Council for Democracy has listened to the messages of each delegation and accepted the principle of mediation. It has also reaffirmed its commitment not to hold onto power for long," the statement added.

On Wednesday evening, the soldiers arrested the transition president, his prime minister and members of government, before setting up the National Council for Democracy.

A team of African mediators led by Presidents Macky Sall of Senegal and Boni Yayi of Benin, is scheduled to arrive in Ouagadougou on Friday.

Gen. Diendere is expected to hold talks with the Senegalese president, who is also chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Meanwhile, Burkinabes woke up on Friday in a state of uneasy calm after their first night of curfew following the military coup which overthrew the transition government on Wednesday night.

In Ouagadougou, some residents were seen going about with their normal activities, while still expressing fear.

The city's main market remained shut, and the curtains of shops situated along the major streets were lowered.

The petrol stations in the city center were closed, and eyewitnesses told Xinhua the situation was similar in other towns.

"I do not have a choice. I have to go and buy my products. It is God who protects us," a trader in Ouagadougou told Xinhua. Endit