Burkina Faso will return to civilian rule and an interim government led by President Michel Kafando will be reinstated, reversing a military coup, Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi said on Saturday.
“We are going to relaunch the transition underway – a transition led by civilians, with Michel Kafando,” he told reporters after a meeting with coup leader General Gilbert Diendere in the capital Ouagadougou.
In another development, 10 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in the streets of Burkina Faso’s capital since the military coup on Thursday, a source at the main hospital said on Saturday.
Most of the victims were treated for gunshot wounds. Among the dead was a 14-year-old, the source added.
Since the coup on Thursday, the African Union has suspended Burkina Faso as a member of the continental organisation. ECOWAS, France, USA and the United Nations have all condemned the coup and called for the resinstatement of the interim government, to complete the country’s transition programme to democracy, with elections already scheduled for 11 October.