The U.N. Security Council says it is seriously concerned about reports of a possible coup attempt in Burundi and the subsequent arrest of several political leaders.

The council said Friday that it encourages all parties in Burundi to preserve peace and national reconciliation.

The Council's president for August, Ghanian envoy Nana Effah-Apenteng, said they also urged Burundi's government to follow due process in the course of its investigation.

Members of the Burundi army guard President Domitien Ndayizeye in this 2003 file photo

Earlier this week, authorities in Burundi detained former president Domitien Ndayizeye. Several other prominent politicians have also been arrested in connection with the alleged coup plot.

Thursday, one of those detained, former rebel leader Alphonse Marie Kadege, called several radio stations from a prison in the capital, Bujumbura, to retract a confession that said he had been involved in a coup plot.  He said authorities had tortured him to extract the confession.

Burundi is recovering from a civil war between majority ethnic Hutus and minority Tutsis that left an estimated 300,000 people dead.