The West African country of Burkina Faso has said that a plan to kill its military chief, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, has been stopped.
The security minister said in a late-night show that Lt. Col. Paul Henri Damiba, the military commander Traoré fired in September 2022, had come up with the complicated plot.
“Our intelligence services stopped this operation at the last minute.” “They had planned to kill the head of state and then attack other important institutions, including civilians,” Mahamadou Sana claimed. He also said that the scheme had been funded from the Ivory Coast.
Neither Col Damiba nor Ivory Coast have said anything.
Since taking office, Capt. Traoré has had to deal with at least two coup attempts and rising extremist violence that has pushed millions to leave their homes.
Even though he has a reputation for being dictatorial and has faced these problems, the 37-year-old military leader still has a lot of respect from the people and has earned followers across Africa for his pan-Africanist vision and condemnation of Western influence.
The security minister said that the authorities found a tape that had been released and showed the plotters talking about their plans.
They are said to have talked about how they would kill the president, either up close or by putting explosives at his home, just after 23:00 local time on Saturday, January 3.
They were then said to have planned to go after other high-ranking military and civilian officials.
Sana said that Damiba had gathered soldiers and civilian followers, gotten money from other countries (most importantly, 70 million CFA francs, or $125,000; £92,000, from Ivory Coast), and planned to destroy the country’s drone-launch station before foreign forces could become involved.
“We are still looking into this and have made a number of arrests. The minister remarked on national television that “these people will soon be brought to justice.”
Sana said that the situation was under control and advised people not to “be misled, out of naivety, into dangerous schemes.”
We don’t know how many people have been arrested.
People from both inside and outside of the country have called Traoré an authoritarian leader and said that his government stifles criticism by making arbitrary arrests of military members and limiting the media.
The junta has blamed Ivory Coast for interfering in its business before.
These ongoing power battles within the country will make tensions in the region much worse.
Col. Damiba took power from an elected government and led Burkina Faso from January to September 2022.
He went into exile in Togo after being forced out of office, and in a post on social media, he wished his successor all the best.
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