Burkinabe army faces purges over alleged coup plot

Members of Burkina Faso’s military have been arrested and detained over alleged involvement in a coup attempt that the junta government has accused the former transitional president, Paul-Henri Damiba, of plotting, as reported by RFI and agencies on January 28th.

Since Damiba’s arrest and extradition from neighbouring Togo, military sources have stated that several commanding officers have gone missing, with some high-ranking members of the gendarmerie being placed under surveillance or disarmed.

The large-scale arrests have also affected certain civilians, who have been accused of complicity in plots to overthrow the junta government of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power following a military coup in September 2022.

Damiba was ousted by Traoré after eight months in office, and has been repeatedly accused of plotting to overthrow the government, with the Togolese Justice Minister saying that he was extradited to his home country over a range of charges, including embezzlement, corruption and incitement to commit offences.

Since seizing power, the junta has used allegations of coup attempts to justify the crackdown on perceived dissent and opposition voices, including that of journalists and magistrates.

In December, the Council of Ministers in Burkina Faso adopted a bill to reinstate the death penalty for crimes such as treason, terrorism and espionage, despite capital punishment being abolished in 2018; the bill is reportedly yet to be discussed in parliament and passed as law.

This bill is seen as an example of the junta’s increasingly authoritarian actions; similarly, the junta has been accused of carrying out mass killings of civilians under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Upon seizing power in 2022, Traoré vowed to counter the growing threat posed by jihadist insurgency groups, which are not limited to Burkina Faso, as the Sahel region has increasingly become a global hub for Islamist terrorism.

It was reported on January 22nd that at least 11 police officers were killed by jihadist fighters in the Gourma province of Burkina Faso’s Eastern Region, when “several hundred jihadists” attacked a police detachment.

Despite promising to restore stability, the junta has struggled to contain jihadist violence due to groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State controlling significant portions of the landlocked Sahel region.

RFI and agencies, Maghrebi.org