General denies role in coup attempt

A Burkino Faso general last week denied leading a 2015 coup attempt in the West African state. 'I neither ordered, nor planned, nor organised, nor executed what some people are calling a coup d'etat on 16 September 2015,' Gilbert Diendere told a military court in the capital Ouagadougou. A report on the News24 site notes that Diendere is the former head of the elite Presidential Security Regiment that guarded President Blaise Compaore, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014. Compaore ruled the former French colony for 27 years after coming to power after a military coup. Diendere is charged with treason, murder and threatening state security.