The 10am ultimatum was defied by the Presidential Guard. The situation in Ouagadougou is tense and fluid. The nation’s loyalist army has taken control of the streets and told citizens to return to their homes. Right now, the streets ouf Ouaga are deserted. The army said earlier they were preparing an attack of the Camp Naaba military base near the Presidential Palace which is held by the RSP, the ‘army within the army’ which staged the coup last week. Now BBC reports they are “awaiting instructions”.
RSP soldiers have locked down the Presidential Palace and also positioned themselves around the state run television and radio station. In effect, those are the only two strongholds they possess- the President’s residence and the media. Yesterday the US Embassy confirmed RSP destroyed the nation’s telecom infrastructure, knocking out internet service and telecommunications of Onatel. As a result it has been difficult for protesters to mobilize as they done in October when they successfully overthrew Blaise Compaore, who created the RSP to protect to him from the army at large.
The ultimatum demanded that RSP lay down their arms or face attack. Coup leader and ex-spy chief, the shadowy General Gilbert Diendere, and Compaore‘s right hand for his 27-year rule, called for a press conference as the deadline elapsed. In it he said he was still in charge and awaited the outcome of the emergency meeting of ECOWAS, being held now in Abuja, Nigeria. In a televised statement last night, he agreed to stand by the draft proposal which resulted from weekend mediation talks. Until that time it was not clear whether the RSP would abide by the terms, which have been broadly denounced by civil society and opposition groups.
Meanwhile, Cherif Sy, the head of the Transition government’s Parliament has made a Presidential decree dissolving the RSP and placing its members at the disposition of the military Chief of Staff. Last week, while interim President Kafando was taken hostage, and in denial of the legitimacy of the coup, he declared himself acting President under Burkina’s Constitution. It is unclear at this point, especially now that Michel Kafando has been released what authority Sy has under the constitution.
One final piece of news to report, and it could prove telling, Achile Tapsoba, a senior member of CDP, the party of the ousted President Blaise Compaore, was arrested trying to cross the border to Ghana. CDP was barred from participating in the upcoming elections by the transition government. General Diendere’s expressed motivation for staging the coup was to keep the peace by avoiding conflicts during the celection due to CDP’s exclusion. One of his conditions during mediation talks was to reinstate CDP candidates back into the upcoming election. His wife is a senior CDP party member.
At this point, while the tense stand-off in Ouaga continues, everyone awaits news from the ECOWAS meeting. Burkina’s state TV has also reportedly just gone off the air.