On Now
Weekdays 23:00 - 23:59
Overnight Oscar
NEXT: N/A N/A with N/A
Listen Live Streams

Africa News

AU suspends Burkina Faso

───   07:49 Sun, 20 Sep 2015

AU suspends Burkina Faso | News Article

The African Union says it has suspended Burkina Faso and will impose sanctions on coup leaders if they do not restore the interim government and release its senior officials.

Al Jazeera reports the AU statement follows a meeting of the Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Soldiers from the elite presidential guard (RSP) stormed into a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and abducted President Michel Kafando and Isaac Zida, the prime minister, disrupting a transition period due to end with polls next month.

General Gilbert Diendere, a former spy chief and close ally of Blaise Compaore, the former long-term president, was named junta head the next day.

The AU gave coup leaders 96 hours, or until Tuesday, September 22, to restore the transitional government or face travel bans and asset freezes. Burkina Faso, whose citizens toppled Compaore last year as he sought to extend his 27-year rule, had been seen as a model by pro-democracy campaigners across sub-Saharan Africa.

The coup has been condemned by the US, former colonial power France and the UN.

Al Jazeera

 

@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.