Four officers have been placed in detention for questioning in Burkina Faso, as confirmed by a prosecutor on Thursday, after military government’s announcement of having thwarted a coup attempt the previous day.
The four individuals are under suspicion of being involved in a “conspiracy against state security,” as stated by military prosecutor Ahmed Ferdinand Sountoura in a statement viewed by media on Thursday.
Two others are “on the run”, the statement said.
On the evening of Wednesday, the military junta announced that the intelligence and security services had successfully thwarted a coup attempt that had taken place the day before.
This incident occurred almost a year to the day since Captain Ibrahim Traore, the leader of the junta, took control of the West African nation on September 30, 2022.
His assumption of power marked the second coup in Burkina Faso within eight months. Both coups were, in part, driven by dissatisfaction with the government’s inability to curb a growing jihadist insurgency that had spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Late on Tuesday, in response to a call from Traore’s supporters to “defend” him amid rumours of a coup circulating on social media, thousands of individuals had gathered on the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou.