The transitional government of Burkina Faso, established after the military took power in September 2022, denounced a failed coup attempt carried out this Tuesday in the country. According to a statement released late yesterday by the Executive's spokesperson, Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, the uprising was "thwarted by the Burkinabe intelligence and security services."
The military junta's Justice announced the arrest of four officers and other people suspected of being involved in a "plot against the security of the State" and "two others are fugitives" who are being sought, indicated military magistrate Ahmed Ferdinand Sountoura. at a press conference. "The military prosecutor's office immediately opened a detailed investigation to clarify the reported facts."
According to the spokesperson, these types of actions represent an "impediment" for the Burkinabe people to achieve their "sovereignty and their total liberation from the terrorist hordes that try to enslave them," in reference to the jihadist violence that devastates the country and the Sahel region. .
On Thursday, the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou, were quiet, with no special security measures, according to a France-Presse journalist. But on Tuesday night, thousands of people took to the streets of the city to ask for support for Captain Traoré and "defend him" against the rumors of a coup d'état that were stirring social networks. Precisely yesterday's statement warned the population against the rumors unleashed on social networks about a possible riot and assured that "ongoing investigations will allow the instigators of the plot to be unmasked."
"I am confident in my determination to successfully lead the transition despite adversity and various maneuvers to stop our inexorable march towards assumed sovereignty," transitional president Captain Ibrahim Traoré declared on Wednesday in X (formerly Twitter).
The authorities revealed this information a day after prohibiting the distribution in the country of the French magazine Jeune Afrique, for the publication of an article that claimed that tensions and discontent are growing in the Burkinabe Army.
"These statements deliberately launched without any evidence have the sole objective of discrediting the National Armed Forces and all combat forces that fight hard for the sovereignty and dignity of our people," Ouédraogo then highlighted.
These alleged attempts at destabilization occur almost a year after his seizure of power, during a coup d'état on September 30, 2022, the second in eight months. Three months after the takeover, in December 2022, the prosecutor's office had already denounced an attempt to destabilize the regime and announced arrests of soldiers.
These events occur after a series of coups d'état perpetrated in recent years in the West and Central Africa region, the most recent being in Niger, on July 26, and Gabon, on August 30.
Burkina Faso, for its part, suffered two coups last year: one on January 24 led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, and another on September 30 led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, current head of state. The seizure of power by the military took place on both occasions after discontent between the population and the Army due to jihadist attacks, which have displaced more than two million people in the country.
The attacks occur in particular in the “three borders” area, which Burkina shares with Niger and Mali, two countries also governed by the military who came to power through coups d'état. These three countries signed a letter earlier this month establishing an alliance of "collective defense and mutual assistance", creating the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Since 2015, this violence has caused more than 17,000 deaths and more than two million internally displaced people in Burkina alone.
The Burkinabe government announced last week that, as of August 31, 191,937 displaced people had returned to their respective locations in various regions of Burkina Faso, boasting a reconquest of locations previously occupied by jihadist groups. Despite these actions, attacks attributed to jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State continue regularly in almost all of Burkina Faso.
