Burkina Faso military junta foils coup plot — second attempt this month

Burkina Faso’s military junta says it has thwarted a coup attempt following information from security and intelligence services.

In a statement read out on national television on Wednesday, the authorities said the alleged perpetrators “had the sinister intention of attacking the institutions of the Republic and plunging the country into chaos”.

“At present, officers and other alleged participants in this destabilisation attempt have been arrested and others are being actively sought,” the authorities added.

Although the statement did not identify those arrested, it said investigations are ongoing to “help unmask the instigators of this plot”.

Ibrahim Traoré, junta leader, seized power on September 30, 2022, making it the country’s second coup in eight months.

The takeovers were each triggered in part by discontent at failures to stem a raging jihadist insurgency which swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

The coup leaders also said their seizure of power was to help control the country’s political instability. 

But there has been little progress in the landlocked country’s power struggle.

Shortly after Traoré’s takeover, military prosecutors in December 2022 said there had been an attempt to “destabilise state institutions” and announced some arrests.

Earlier this month, the country’s military prosecutor also said three soldiers had been arrested and charged with plotting against the ruling junta.

Investigators said they had received a tipoff about “soldiers and former soldiers working in intelligence” who were scouting out the homes and other locations used by key figures in the junta, including Traoré.

The Burkina Faso coup attempt comes on the heels of successful coups in Niger Republic and Gabon, as Africa continues to struggle with the concept of democratic leadership.