The African Union has suspended Burkina Faso and will impose sanctions on coup leaders if they do not restore the interim government and release its leaders, it said on Friday.
Soldiers from the RSP elite presidential guard stormed into a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and abducted President Michel Kafando and Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, disrupting a transition period due to end with polls restoring democracy on Oct. 11. Gen. Gilbert Diendere, a former spy chief, was named junta head the next day.
The AU statement followed a meeting of the Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa. It gave coup leaders 96 hours, or until Tuesday, to restore the transitional government or face travel bans and asset freezes.
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