Burkina Faso‘s security and intelligence services foiled a coup attempt on Tuesday, September 26, according to the country’s military government.
The coup
In a statement read out on state television, it said ‘a proven coup attempt was foiled on September 26, 2023, by Burkina Faso’s intelligence and security services’.
‘At present, officers and other alleged participants in this destabilisation attempt have been arrested and others are being actively sought’.
It said the alleged perpetrators ‘had the sinister intention of attacking the institutions of the Republic and plunging the country into chaos’.
The military government said it would seek to shed all possible light on this plot, adding that it regretted ‘that officers whose oath is to defend their homeland have strayed into an undertaking of this nature’.
The arrest
It said while four people had been detained, two were on the run.
The statement added that the regime launched investigation based on ‘credible allegations about a plot against state security implicating officers.’
‘We regret that officers whose oath is to defend their homeland have strayed into an undertaking of this nature, which aims to hinder the Burkinabe people’s march for sovereignty and total liberation from the terrorist hordes trying to enslave them.’
The junta came to power after two military coups last year, triggered in part by a worsening insurgency by armed groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that has destabilised Burkina Faso and its neighbours.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the junta leader, seized power on September 30, 2022, the country’s second coup in eight months.
