Global Courant
The military prosecutor says four have been arrested, two of whom are on the run after reports that a coup attempt was foiled by security forces.
A coup attempt against Burkina Faso’s military rulers has been foiled by the country’s intelligence and security services, authorities said.
Burkina Faso’s military rulers said in a statement Wednesday that army officers and others were planning to seize power and plunge the country into “chaos.”
“Agents and other alleged actors involved in this attempted destabilization have been arrested and others are actively sought,” ruling army spokesman Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a statement, without giving details.
The latest coup attempt took place on Tuesday, according to the statement.
The military government said it would try to “shed all possible light on this plot” and that it regretted “that officers whose oath is to defend their homeland have strayed into an undertaking of this nature.”
The country’s military prosecutor later said four people had been arrested and two were on the run. An investigation has been opened based on “credible allegations of a plot against state security involving agents,” the prosecutor said.
Earlier this month, the military prosecutor said three soldiers had been arrested and charged with plotting against the ruling military government of Captain Ibrahim Traore, who seized power in September 2022, eight months after an earlier military coup toppled democratically elected President Roch Marc Kabore .
Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou appeared calm on Wednesday evening after the army announced an attempt to overthrow the city.
Thousands of protesters from the pro-military government took to the streets in Ouagadougou and elsewhere on Tuesday to show their support for the country’s military rulers, following a call from Traore supporters to “defend” him amid rumors of a mutiny that circulated on social media.
On Monday, French news magazine Jeune Afrique was suspended for publishing what the military said was an “untrue” article reporting tensions and discontent within the armed forces.
One of a growing number of West African countries where the military has seized power, military officers in Burkina Faso have taken power amid public discontent as armed groups linked to Al Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) have launched an insurgency which has destabilized the country and its neighbors in the Sahel region of West Africa.
More than two million people have been uprooted by the fighting in Burkina Faso, making it one of the worst internal displacement crises in Africa.
Last week, authorities claimed that nearly 192,000 internally displaced people had returned to their homes after several regions were recaptured by government forces, although rebel attacks continue despite claims that the army is reclaiming territory.
More than fifty Burkinabe soldiers and volunteer fighters were killed in clashes with rebels in early September — the heaviest losses in months — the latest deaths adding to the thousands of civilians and troops killed in rebel attacks in recent years, according to organizations monitoring the conflict .
