Military officers announce coup in Burkina Faso

Military officers announced late on Friday that they had taken power in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, in what appeared to be the second coup in eight months to rock a nation struggling to quash growing violence from extremist groups.

As gunfire rang out earlier on Friday and the state television channel went off the air in Ouagadougou, the capital, the president, Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who led the previous coup in January, had tried to reassure citizens that he was still in control.

But after a day of uncertainty and chaos, military officers announced on national television that they had ousted Colonel Damiba and that Capt. Ibrahim Traoré was now in power.