Burkina Faso's interim President Michel Kafando says there was no loss of life in the army raid of the barracks that had been captured by coup leader General Gilbert Diendere's forces.
Kafando who visited the recaptured barracks on Wednesday thanked the government troops for their "miraculous exploit" with no loss of life on either side.
On Tuesday evening (September 29), Burkina Faso soldiers said they had met little resistance as they entered a presidential guard camp in the capital where members of the elite presidential guard unit were holding out after a coup.
Residents of the Ouaga 2000 district in the capital Ouagadougou said they heard bursts of gunfire in the late afternoon as troops, who had surrounded the base for most of the day, moved in.
"Let's honour the national army which managed the almost miraculous exploit to put an end to the rebellion without any loss of human lives, on either the loyalists' side or the rebels' side," Kafando said during a news conference at the camp on Wednesday.
Diendere fled just before government troops raided barracks held by his forces in Ouagadougou, wiping out the last vestiges of his bid to take
over the West African nation.
over the West African nation.
Burkina Faso's government said on Wednesday it had started negotiations to persuade the leader of a short-lived coup to surrender, a day after he took refuge in the Vatican's compound in the capital.
Diendere's forces - members of an elite presidential guard unit - raided a cabinet meeting on Sept. 16 and detained Kafando, the prime minister and several cabinet members.
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