President Michel Kafando, who was taken hostage during last week’s coup, says civilian transitional government restored.

The elite presidential guard last Wednesday took the president, prime minister, and several other officials captive [AFP]

Burkina Faso’s interim President Michel Kafando, who was taken hostage during a coup a week ago, said he was back in power and had restored a civilian transitional government.

“I have returned to work,” he said in a brief speech to journalists at the foreign ministry in the capital on Wednesday. “The transition is back and at this very minute is exercising the power of the state.”

Burkina Faso coup leaders agreed to return to their barracks, signing a deal with the army that apparently defused the standoff sparked by last week’s coup.

The breakthrough came on Tuesday night after marathon talks in Nigeria’s Abuja, where West African heads of state had sought to break the impasse fuelled by angry threats on both sides.

The deal was signed a day after troops entered Burkina’s capital of Ouagadougou, turning up the pressure on the elite presidential guards (RSP), who staged the coup.

Under its terms, the RSP agreed to step down from the positions they had taken up in Ouagadougou, while the army also agreed to withdraw its troops 50km from the capital and guarantee the safety of the RSP members as well as their families.

The deal was presented to the Mogho Naba, or “king” of Burkina Faso’s leading Mossi tribe, in front of the media early Wednesday.

Burkina Faso plunged into crisis last Wednesday when the powerful RSP detained the interim leaders who had been running the country since a popular uprising deposed iron-fisted President Blaise Compaore last October.

The elite unit of 1,300 men loyal to Compaore officially declared a coup on Thursday and installed rebel leader General Gilbert Diendere, Compaore’s former chief of staff, as the country’s new leader.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Economic Community of West African States said it planned to reinstate and demonstrate solidarity with Kafando, who was released on Friday.

Military takes to airwaves and declares it now controls West African nation, just weeks before planned elections.

Burkina Faso was due to hold elections on October 11 that many hoped would strengthen democracy [Reuters]

The military in Burkina Faso has taken to the airwaves to declare it now controls the country, confirming that a coup has taken place – just weeks before national elections.

In the announcement aired early on Thursday on national television and radio, the statement said that the transitional government in the West African country had been dissolved.

The statement came a day after members of the elite presidential guard unit of the military arrested the transitional president and prime minister.

The communique read by Lieutenant Colonel Mamadou Bamba criticised the electoral code, which blocked members of the ex-president’s party from taking part in the October 11 elections.

Anyone who supported the ex-president’s bid to amend the
constitution so he could seek another term is also banned from running.

Bamba on Thursday announced the beginning of a “coherent, fair and equitable process” that would lead to inclusive elections. The power grab violates the country’s constitution.

Fanny Noaro, a journalist based in the capital Ouagadougou, told Al Jazeera gunfire could be heard on the streets of the city.

“There is a lot of military on the street […] there is also no information about the transitional president and prime minister and there is no information if they are dead or alive,” she said.

A Reuters witness said that soldiers had fired warning shots to disperse a crowd gathered in Independence Square to protest against an apparent seizure of power by the presidential guard. More than 100 people had gathered in the square to demand the release of the interim government, detained by the elite military unit since Wednesday.

Burkina Faso was due to hold elections on October 11 that many hoped would strengthen democracy.

Cynthia Ohayon, West Africa analyst with International Crisis Group (ICG), described the turn of events as “unsurprising”.

“It is still very unclear how this crisis will now resolve itself […] the only outcome will come through negotiation and compromise [but] I don’t see what sort of of compromise will be acceptable to both sides, considering both sides have gone all in so far,” Ohayon told Al Jazeera from Paris.

The transitional government came to power after the president for 27 years, Blaise Compaore, was toppled late last year in a public uprising.