Burkina Faso junta says it foiled coup attempt

Burkina Faso's military junta said on Wednesday that its security and intelligence services thwarted a coup attempt.

In statement, the junta said it had arrested "officers and other alleged actors" for an "attempt at destabilization," without elaborating on who was allegedly involved. 

So far four people have been detained, the junta said. 

On Tuesday, supporters of junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore took to the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou, following a call from Traore supporters to "defend" him amid rumors of a coup on social media.

The junta on Monday suspended a French news magazine called Jeune Afrique for publishing an "untruthful" report of tension within Burkina Faso's armed forces.

Burkina Faso's history of coups

Traore seized power from a different military junta on September 30, 2022 — which was the landlocked country's second coup in eight months.

Traore overthrew the military regime of Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who himself had ousted the democratically elected President Roch Marc Kabore in January 2022. 

The current junta said Sandaogo's military regime had failed to resolve Burkina Faso's security issues. 

Growing attacks by al-Qaida and the Islamic State group-linked extremists have displaced over 2 million people there and killed thousands.

Since the first coup in January 2022, deaths from militant-linked violence have tripled compared to the eighteen months before, according to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

mk/wmr (Reuters, AP, AFP)