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Ouagadougou — Burkina Faso’s army yesterday ordered Ouagadougou residents to stay home “for security reasons” after some members of the presidential guard refused to disarm.

The order concerned people living near the barracks of the presidential guard, which staged a coup earlier this month, army chief Pingrenoma Zagre said in a statement published by the website Burkina24 and other media.

The army had earlier started supervising the disarming of the 1,200-member guard, but then said that some of its members were refusing to hand over their weapons while coup leader Gilbert Diendere was not giving them clear orders to do so.

Soldiers and tanks were seen on the streets of Ouagadougou, but it was not clear if the army was preparing an attack or if it was just mounting pressure on the presidential guard.

African Union representative Smail Chergui told the radio station Omega FM that the parties to the conflict should “do all to avoid bloodshed”.

The presidential guard took interim President Michel Kafando, interim Prime Minister Isaac Zida and two ministers captive on September 16. Under pressure from the regular army and West African leaders, coup leaders agreed several days later to hand power back to civilian authorities.

The interim government was reinstated last week, and announced on Friday that it was disbanding the presidential guard.

The coup leaders had opposed plans to integrate the presidential guard into the army.

They also wanted loyalists of previously toppled president Blaise Compaore to be allowed to contest elections due later this year.

Compaore fled in October 2014 to Ivory Coast following massive protests against plans to extend his 27-year rule.

Meanwhile, Ougadougou airport was shut down yesterday, an airport official told AFP, as Burkina troops locked down the area around the barracks of an elite unit behind a short-lived coup after they failed to disarm.

All flights were cancelled and the airport near the city centre would remain shut until further notice, the source told AFP.

The news came several hours after the army staged a lockdown in the Ouaga 2000 neighbourhood around the barracks of the presidential guard (RSP) responsible for the September 17 coup.

Although the unit abandoned its coup last week and was formally dissolved by the cabinet on Friday, the guards have failed to lay down their weapons and remained inside their barracks, prompting a new stand-off with the government. — DPA-AFP