Vincent Bado/Portal
The foiled coup attempt comes nearly a year after Burkina Faso’s junta leader Ibrahim Traore (center) seized power in the West African country.
CNN –
Four army officers have been arrested in Burkina Faso, a military prosecutor said, a day after the country’s ruling military junta said it had foiled an attempted coup.
Two other officers are “on the run,” according to a statement from the public prosecutor’s office at the military court in the capital Ouagadougou.
Burkina Faso’s military junta said in an earlier statement that intelligence and security services had foiled a “proven coup attempt” on Wednesday.
“A number of officials and other suspected actors involved in this destabilization attempt have been arrested, while others are under active investigation,” the statement said.
Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore later said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was “committed to liberating the country.”
“I assure you of my determination to bring the transition to a successful conclusion, despite all the odds and the various maneuvers designed to stop our inexorable march towards sovereignty,” he added in his post.
Traore seized power in the West African country in a coup on September 30 last year, on a day marked by gunfire and confusion in Ouagadougou. The coup was the second in eight months as leaders of both states vowed to restore security after years of violence in the country.
Earlier this month, Burkina Faso’s military leaders signed a mutual defense pact with juntas in Mali and Niger.
The border triangle has become the epicenter of violence that began in neighboring Mali in 2012 but has since spread across the arid expanse of the Sahel region south of the Sahara.