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African Union suspends Burkina Faso, threatens sanctions

Xinhua, September 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

The African Union (AU) has suspended Burkina Faso and threatened sanctions on coup leaders.

The AU Peace and Security Council, the AU's decision-making body, "decides to suspend, with immediate effect, the participation of Burkina Faso in all AU activities, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the AU Constitutive Act and of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance," said a communique from the pan-African bloc late Friday.

The council will impose sanctions on coup leaders if they do not reverse their actions within "96 hours from the adoption of the present communique."

The council strongly condemned the kidnapping and unlawful detention of President Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Isaac Zida, as well as some members of the government.

It also strongly condemned the announcement by the military of the "dissolution" of the transitional institutions and the assumption of power by the army.

"...all the measures taken by those who seized power by force in Burkina Faso are null and void," said the council.

It stressed that the AU shall "neither recognize nor support any process conducted outside the Transition launched in Burkina Faso in November 2014, and therefore demands a return to the status quo ante."

Soldiers from Burkina Faso's Presidential Guard disrupted a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and detained Kafando, Zida and other ministers before setting up the National Council for Democracy.

On Friday night, Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is also chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi met with coup leader General Gilbert Diendere in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso.

No progress has been disclosed by the parties in the talks, according to an anonymous source close to the meeting. Enditem