Senegal President Macky Sall deplored a “lack of dialogue” as mediators entered a second day of talks on Saturday over Burkina Faso’s coup in which an elite military unit overthrew the transitional government.
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Burkina Faso’s military has taken to the airwaves to declare it now controls the country in a coup mounted weeks before elections.
Late Friday night, after a full day of meetings, Sall noted that the rival camps had shown little will to negotiate.
Diendere, a former top Compaore aide, said Friday that he met with some members of the worldwide community and was “considering meeting the different political parties very soon”.
But transition officials have insisted that the junta needs to leave. Soldiers from the regiment fired on protests after the coup was announced, killing at least six people, but they had little presence on the streets of Ouagadougou on Saturday, emboldening demonstrators who cried out “Homeland or death!”
They were also to meet with the country’s interim president, Michel Kafando, who was released on Thursday after being detained by the coup leaders. Compaore resigned under pressure in October after attempting to extend his 27-year presidency, which sparked widespread public backlash.
In Burkina Faso it is reported that three people have died and at least 13 have been injured at the main hospital in Ouagadougou.
Early reports indicated that demonstrators opposing the coup spent time on Saturday burning tires and setting up roadblocks leading into the capital, the angered protesters also shouted denouncing slogans at Gilbert Diendre, the general who was named the new leader on Thursday, after the security regime stormed a meeting held by the government and arrested the acting president as well as the prime minister.
It said that the elections were due to be held in the country on October 11, in support of which Nigeria had donated 20 pick-up vans to the National Electoral Commission of Burkina Faso.
The coup – the country’s sixth since it won independence from France in 1960 – unfolded overnight.
“What is envisaged – and what will be done – is maintaining Kafando as head of state and for the government to complete the transition”, the source said.
In the capital, amid growing calls for civil disobedience, the homes of two former Compaore allies – former Ouagadougou mayor Simon Compaore, and Salif Diallo, who had joined opposition ranks in 2014 – were ransacked overnight Friday, an Agence France-Presse reporter saw.
“We simply want a set of proposals that allow us to get to the elections in all peace and serenity while assuring that the results are uncontested and incontestable”, he told TV 5 MONDE.
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The 54-member African Union (AU) has suspended Burkina Faso and imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on the junta.
