(Ouagadougou) The transitional government in Burkina Faso claimed Wednesday evening that it had foiled “an attempted coup d’état” the day before, almost a year after Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power through a putsch.
In a press release read on national television, the government “informs public opinion that a proven coup attempt was foiled on September 26, 2023 by the Burkinabè intelligence and security services”.
“At present, officers and other alleged actors involved in this attempt at destabilization have been arrested and others actively sought,” continues the government, which deplores that the authors of this attempted putsch “fed the dark intention to attack the institutions of the Republic and to precipitate [le] country in chaos.
Tuesday evening, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Ouagadougou to call for support for Captain Traoré to “defend” him in the face of rumors of a putsch that were stirring social networks.
Assuring that it wants to shed “all light on this plot”, the government “regrets that officers whose oath is to defend the Fatherland, have erred in an enterprise of such a nature which aims to hinder the march of the Burkinabe people for their sovereignty and its total liberation from the terrorist hordes which attempt to enslave it.
This alleged putsch attempt comes almost a year to the day after Captain Traoré took power in a coup d’état, on September 30, 2022.
It was then the second coup d’état in eight months in Burkina Faso, undermined for almost ten years by bloody jihadist violence over a large part of its territory.