The U.S. State Department on Tuesday recommended that U.S. citizens in Burkina Faso leave the West African nation as leaders of last week’s coup in the capital faced domestic and international pressure to lay down their arms.
The State Department cited an uncertain security situation, including reports of gunfire throughout the capital, Ouagadougou. It also recommended against travel to the landlocked country.
The warning came nearly a week after members of Burkina Faso’s presidential guard unit raided a September 16 Cabinet meeting, seized the interim President and the Prime Minister and declared they were taking over the country just weeks before general elections.
The coup appeared to be unraveling this week, with the rest of Burkina Faso’s military reportedly opposed to it and citizens protesting against it in the capital. The Burkinabe military said Monday that it was marching on the capital with the intention of disarming the coup participants.
Facing this pressure, coup and presidential guard unit leader Gen. Gilbert Diendere said Monday that he had released Prime Minister Isaac Zida.
Diendere also said he intended to hand over power to transitional civil authorities as soon as negotiations between his team and a 15-country regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, were finished.
Demonstrators gathered in opposition to the takeover for days, and a witness told CNN last week that soldiers fired guns into the air in an apparent effort to contain the crowds.
Details about casualties weren’t immediately available, but officials inside and outside the country have referred to a loss of life. Diendere said Monday that he deplored “the losses in human lives and property.”
French President Francois Hollande also referred to casualties when he expressed his “solidarity with the family of the victims of the unacceptable violence seen in the last days.” France is the former colonial ruler of what today is Burkina Faso.
Commission had recommended disbanding guards before coup
The presidential guard unit was seen as loyal to former President Blaise Compaore, who stepped down under pressure by protesters in 2014 after ruling for 27 years.
Protesters toppled Compaore last year after he expressed a desire to extend his rule. He stepped down after days of mass protests and the military briefly took over before Michel Kafando was appointed as interim President.
Days before last week’s coup in Ouagadougou, a commission had recommended the disbanding of the presidential guard unit.
General elections were scheduled for October 11, though the coup threw the date in doubt.
Diendere, a former Compaore adviser, denied in a televised interview Thursday that he was acting on Compaore’s behalf.
The coup drew international condemnation.
The African Union said Friday that it suspended Burkina Faso’s membership, and that it intended to impose sanctions if the transitional government wasn’t restored.
Hollande also warned Monday of French sanctions if the coup leaders didn’t step down. He said that French civil, financial and military cooperation with Burkina Faso would be suspended until power was transferred to civil authorities.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that the United Nations stood firmly behind Kafando.