General Gilbert Diendere: asked to surrender

The game may be over for General Gilbert Diendere, leader of the military coup last week in Burkina Faso.

This is because military heads in the country have decided to march into the capital Ouagadougou to disarm the Diendere’s elite presidential guard “without bloodshed”.

The 1,200-member unit staged a coup on Wednesday, taking hostage the interim president, Michel Kafando and members of the government just weeks before Oct. 11 polls meant to restore democracy following last year’s overthrow of longtime leader Blaise Compaore.

“We ask them to immediately lay down their arms and go to Camp Sangoule Lamizana,” read the statement signed by several military chiefs, referring to a barracks in Ouagadougou.

“They and their families will be protected,” it added.

Mediators from regional bloc ECOWAS announced a draft agreement aimed at ending the crisis late on Sunday. However the proposal, which included an amnesty for the coup leaders, was swiftly rejected by civil society and opposition politicians. An ECOWAS meeting will hold in Abuja, the Nigerian capital tomorrow to discuss the crisis.

Demonstrators protesting against Diendere and the ECOWAS deal erected barricades and burned tyres in several neighbourhoods across the capital on Monday.

Large protests were also organised in several other towns.

“There’s a potential civil conflict there now. If (Diendere) stays, the people will fight him,” said Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director for the International Crisis Group.