OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Three soldiers have been arrested and charged with plotting against the ruling junta in Burkina Faso, as announced by the country’s military prosecutor on Friday, September 8, 2023.
This adds to the growing list of internal threats facing strongman Captain Ibrahim Traore, who took power less than a year ago.
Investigators received a tip last month about “soldiers and former soldiers working in intelligence” surveilling the residences and other locations frequented by key figures in the ruling junta.
“Their objective was to destabilize the transition,” military prosecutor Major Alphonse Zorma said in a statement.
The term “transition” is commonly used to describe the interim military rule before promised elections.
The arrested soldiers have been identified as Warrant Officer Windinmalegde Kabore; Sergeant Brice Ismael Ramde; and former corporal Sami Dah, who had a prior conviction in a plot against the state in 2015.
The charges levied against them include involvement in a “military plot, breach of military orders, plotting against state security, criminal association, and endangerment.”
“They unequivocally admitted the facts,” Zorma revealed, adding further gravity to an already precarious situation for a country reeling from political turmoil and insurgency.
Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in the Sahel region, has struggled with instability since gaining independence from France in 1960.
It has been particularly volatile in recent years, experiencing two coups just last year.
Traore’s ascension to power on September 30, 2022, came on the heels of the overthrow of Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who himself had toppled Burkina’s elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, just over eight months prior.
The internal threats are not new. Shortly after Traore’s takeover, military prosecutors revealed there had been an earlier attempt to “destabilize state institutions,” involving civilians and a lieutenant-colonel named Emmanuel Zoungrana.
The domestic political instability is further exacerbated by the long-standing jihadist insurgency that has killed more than 16,000 civilians, troops, and police, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
The conflict has also led to one of Africa’s worst internal displacement crises, with more than two million people forced to flee their homes.
Despite the challenges, Captain Ibrahim Traore has promised to return the nation to democratic rule, with presidential elections slated for July 2024.
But as recent events show, the path to stability and democracy is fraught with obstacles, both external and increasingly, internal.
