Burkina Faso police disperse child-death protests

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (Reuters) -- Police in Burkina Faso dispersed crowds who gathered on Thursday to mourn a 12-year-old child killed by a police bullet at a protest which prompted a government ban on public demonstrations.

A government decree banning non-religious demonstrations until further notice was announced late on Wednesday, hours after school pupil Flavien Nebie died from a bullet wound sustained when police broke up a demonstration.

Nebie died while being taken to hospital after being shot at Bousse, around 50 km (30 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou.

The government ban covers all public demonstrations except approved religious processions and funerals.

Police sealed off approaches to the hospital morgue on Thursday and dispersed people who began gathering at a cemetery where Nebie was due to be buried.

Other pupils had clashed with police on Wednesday afternoon outside the morgue.

Security Minister Djibril Bassole said in a statement broadcast on state radio and television late on Wednesday that the police in Bousse had been defending a police station from "demonstrators who had just set fire to part of the police chief's residence" when Nebie was killed.

"Judicial procedures are going ahead to find who was responsible for this tragic accident," the statement added.

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