The 2015 Burkina Faso coup d'état attempt was a failed coup d'état launched on 16 September 2015 in Burkina Faso, when members of the Regiment of Presidential Security (RSP) – a controversial autonomous military unit, formed under President Blaise Compaoré – detained the country's government. Among those detained were the transitional President Michel Kafando, Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida (who was also the former deputy commander of the RSP), and numerous members of the cabinet. This transitional government was formed in the wake of the 2014 Burkinabé uprising, when a popular movement overthrew the long-time president Compaoré, who himself had come to power in a 1987 coup against the left-wing leader Thomas Sankara. New general elections were planned for 11 October 2015.
The RSP was successful in seizing control of Ouagadougou and proclaimed the establishment of a new junta, headed by General Gilbert Diendéré, to oversee the transition to new elections. The coup leaders denounced the transitional government's electoral law, which barred supporters of Compaoré from participating in the elections, and promised to allow all prospective candidates to run. However, the junta failed to consolidate its authority across the country, and faced protests as well as intense pressure from regional leaders, and eventually from the regular army, to restore the transitional government. Ultimately, after the regular army entered Ouagadougou to confront the RSP, Kafando was restored as president on 23 September 2015.
Background
In the days immediately prior to the coup, the Regiment of Presidential Security (which has previously been involved in several alleged coup d'état attempts during the Compaoré administration) had come under intense public scrutiny. On 14 September 2015, it was reported that a commission charged with proposing post-uprising reforms had come to the conclusion that the RSP should be dismantled and its members redeployed. The report, submitted to Prime Minister Zida, described the RSP as "an army within an army".
The coup
While one senior military source stated that the soldiers that apprehended the government members had made no demands, a civil society activist reported that they had demanded the resignation of transitional President Kafando. Chérif Sy, President of the National Transitional Council, soon published a statement saying that dialogue was under-way between the military leadership and the "elements of the RSP" responsible for the coup, and noted that the country was in danger. Le Balai Citoyen, a grassroots Sankarist movement heavily involved in the 2014 uprising, called for the inhabitants of Ouagadougou to gather on the Revolution Square to protest the events. After hundreds of protesters assembled outside of the presidential palace, soldiers fired warning shots to disperse them. They retreated, but did not disperse. Some were beaten back using batons, and gunfire was reported in the Ouaga 2000 neighborhood. Slogans such as "Down with the RSP" and "We want elections" were chanted by the protesters. The private station Radio Omega reported having been forcibly shut down by the Regiment of Presidential Security, and several other radio stations also went off air.
In response to the coup, about 20 French soldiers from an intelligence gathering unit were deployed to Ouagadougou. Several international organizations condemned the events, with the United Nations, African Union and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) calling for those detained to be released, and voicing support for the country's democratic transition.
On 17 September 2015, the coup leaders announced that they were dismissing Kafando, dissolving the government and the transitional legislature, and setting up a new transitional body, the National Council for Democracy ( – CND), to lead the country to "inclusive and peaceful elections". In their proclamation of the CND, they denounced the transitional authorities for their allegedly undemocratic electoral law, which barred anyone who supported a 2014 proposal to eliminate term limits from standing in the October 2015 election, and for ignoring the recommendations of ECOWAS to scrap the exclusionary law. General Gilbert Diendéré was appointed chairman of the council.