Tuesday 4 November 2014

Burkina Faso: Hollande urges quick, civilian-run vote


French President Francois Hollande

QUEBEC CITY (AFP) – France’s President Francois Hollande on Monday urged the Burkina Faso military to quickly hand power to a civilian authority capable of organising elections in the troubled West African country.

Mr Hollande was speaking shortly after the officers who have seized power in the former French colony pledged to name a “consensus” leader tasked with overseeing a return to elected government. 

On the sidelines of a visit to Quebec in Canada, Mr Hollande told reporters it was for a civilian authority to organise elections, and said that he hoped this would be confirmed “in the coming hours”. He also announced that France had helped facilitate the departure “without drama” of the ousted leader Blaise Compaore, who fled the country after mass protests ended his 27-year rule, but denied France actively participated in his escape.

Mr Compaore is now in Burkina Faso’s southern neighbour Ivory Coast, and previously it had not been clear how he had arrived there.

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