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Burkina Faso’s ruling junta has claimed to have thwarted a coup attempt, the latest sign of the divisions within the military’s senior ranks as it battles an intensifying insurgency in the Sahel state.
Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, spokesman for the military transition government, said late on Wednesday that the coup was foiled by the country’s intelligence and security services on Tuesday.
The military prosecutor’s office later said four officers had been arrested and two others were on the run in the west African country, adding in a statement that there were “credible allegations about a plot against state security implicating officers”.
Like its neighbours Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is struggling to cope with a worsening security crisis that has spread throughout the Sahel, the semi-arid strip south of the Sahara desert. Armed campaigns by al-Qaeda and Isis affiliates and other local groups have killed thousands of people and displaced millions. All three countries are run by military governments that swept to power promising to restore stability.
The three countries formed a security alliance this month to assist one another in the event of a rebellion or external aggression. The mutual defence pact was formed in direct response to regional bloc Ecowas’s threat to restore deposed Niger president Mohamed Bazoum with force.
“The actors of this disastrous project of destabilisation, driven by interests at odds with the dynamic of reconquest of our national territory and the sovereignty of our dear country, harboured the dark intention of attacking the institutions of the republic and precipitating our country in chaos,” Ouedraogo said in a statement.
Thousands of pro-junta supporters took to the streets of the capital Ouagadougou and other cities to show support for junta leader Ibrahim Traoré on Tuesday, with smaller-scale protests continuing on Wednesday night.
Such divisions are common within Burkina Faso’s military. Transitional president Traoré seized power a year ago when he unseated Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who himself ousted the democratically elected president Roch Kaboré in January 2022.
Traoré made sweeping changes at the top of the security agencies this month, including appointing a new chief for the National Intelligence Agency, following the arrest of army officers accused of planning a putsch.
The news of a second foiled coup attempt in a month comes in the same week the junta suspended online and print distribution of the French magazine Jeune Afrique for publishing what it called “untruthful” reports about tensions within the military.
Some members of the Burkinabé military have questioned the transitional government’s strategy in the fight against al-Qaeda and Isis affiliates, observers said, adding there is also discontent among frontline troops over pay and working conditions. Islamist groups have been increasing their presence in the country since 2015.
More than 50 soldiers and civilian volunteers were killed this month in the northern province of Yatenga. The junta has increasingly relied on volunteer fighters since Traoré’s coup after the army suffered heavy losses.
Traoré has indicated he is open to a military co-operation agreement with Russia as he struggles to suppress an insurgency that has made Burkina Faso the worst-hit country in the Sahel this year. French special forces left Burkina Faso earlier this year at the junta’s request.
