Demonstrators shout slogans next to burning tree branches in the Tampouy neighbourhood of Ouagadougou during a protest against a regional proposal to end the crisis in Burkina Faso.

AFP/Ouagadougou

Burkina Faso’s army chiefs yesterday ordered coup soldiers to lay down their weapons as troops headed for the capital Ouagadougou from the provinces.
The stark warning came amid growing anger at a west African mediated peace deal to end the latest crisis in the landlocked and poor nation.
“All the national armed forces are converging on Ouagadougou with the sole aim of disarming the presidential guard (RSP) without any bloodshed,” an army statement said.
“We ask them to lay down their arms and go the Sangoule Lamizana camp where they and their families will be safe,” it said, referring to a military barrack west of the capital.
A military source said soldiers were headed for Ouagadougou from the country’s second city Bobo Dioulasso in the west and nearby Dedougou, Kaya and Fada N’Gourma in the east, and Ouahigouya in the north.
Burkina was plunged into turmoil on Wednesday when soldiers from the powerful presidential guard regiment loyal to ex-leader Blaise Compaore detained interim President Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Isaac Zida, himself a former deputy commander of the unit.
The RSP, an elite unit of 1,300 men, officially declared a coup the following day and installed General Gilbert Diendere, a close Compaore ally, as the country’s new leader.
At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured in protests sparked by the coup, which came just weeks before the first elections were to be held since Compaore was ousted in a popular revolt last October after trying to extend his 27-year grip on power.
Following the coup, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, the rotating head of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), undertook three days of mediation in a Ouagadougou hotel and came up on Sunday with a 12-point plan to end the crisis.
The Ecowas deal provides for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held by November 22 at the latest, and, crucially, would allow for pro-Compaore candidates to take part after they complained about being excluded from the planned October polls.
The regional body also wants Diendere’s regime “to restore the transitional institutions and president Kafando”, who was freed by the coup soldiers on Friday. But premier Zida is still under house arrest.
Ecowas mediators said the fate of the RSP should be decided by a future Burkinabe leader, but they proposed an amnesty for those behind the coup.
Ouagadougou residents queueing to settle bills yesterday at the national power supplier, Sonabel, were highly critical of the Ecowas proposal and said they would take to the streets.
“We don’t trust Ecowas any more. We want to get out there and take our destiny in our hands. The bodies are not even buried and (they want) an amnesty. We shall barricade everything,” said Adama Traore, an office worker in his 30s, referring to those killed in coup-linked violence.
Civil society activists who played a major role in the uprising that toppled Compaore have also condemned the Ecowas proposals, with the main “Balai Citoyen” (Civic Broom) group branding the deal “shameful”.
Groups of youths on Monday began putting up barricades and burning tyres in the outlying Ouagadougou districts of Zogona and Tampouy. “Down with Ecowas!” they cried, as well as shouting slogans hostile to the presidential guard and its commander.
Paramilitary police in riot gear challenged the protestors at Tampouy in the west, but held talks with youth leaders and left to applause after an agreement that ambulances and other emergency services would not be hindered.
Many shops were open yesterday and hundreds of motorcycle taxis were busy on the streets, now empty of the many soldiers who had been turning out each day since the coup.
But banks, service stations, supermarkets and government offices were closed and the Internet was barely available. A number of cellphone networks were cut off.
“They’re trying to prevent people from communicating,” said Issouf Ouedraogo, 25.
Many of last year’s demonstrations against Compaore were organised through social media.