Indictment of former top officials in subversive plot highlights growing threats against Capt. Traoré-led government

Captain Ibrahim Traoré

Barely two weeks after Burkina Faso’s minister of security, Mahamadou Sana, announced on 23 September 2024, that the country had foiled another conspiracy to overthrow the Captain Ibrahim Traoré-led government, reports emerged on October 9 that the captain survived another attempt to overthrow him.

 

There has been about 18 coup attempts to overthrow Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traore and more than 30 assassination attempts.

 

Sana’s announcement revealed a firmly implanted network of adversaries against the government, which extended to neighbouring states, and the latest attempt on the military leader’s life means his opponents are not letting up.

 

By the reports from the government, the plot, leaves a long trail of attempts at subversion that seems to have touched all former officials who served under the toppled military regime of Lieutenant-Colonel (Lt. Col.) Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, himself included.

 

According to Sana, the plan, which was of an “unprecedented scale”, called for a coordinated attack on several fronts, involving hundreds of operatives from the Centre-East and Côte d’Ivoire.

 

According to official reports, the main objective was the capture of the presidential palace, with simultaneous attacks on a military drone base and the Ouagadougou airport.

 

The magnitude of the plot had forced the Special Delegation of the commune of Ouagadougou, to announce new security measures aimed at strengthening controls at the entrance to the city. The decision, the Delegation said, was as a result of an assessment of the current security situation and it was aimed at preventing possible terror threats.

 

The new rules would include systematic checks of certain vehicles previously exempted from checks, such as ambulances, funeral vehicles, armoured vans transporting funds, mining and diplomatic vehicles.

 

Drivers and managers of these vehicles will have to present supporting documents, such as mission orders, transfer sheets or diplomatic cards. Security forces also reserve the right to carry out additional checks on vehicles and individuals.

 

In addition, vehicles displaying distinctive signs, such as pennants, will have to remove them upon entering the city. These measures aim to strengthen the fight against terrorism and serious crime.

 

What has caught the attention of many is the depth of the plot and how extensive the list of accomplices is. The investigations are said to have uncovered a complex Web of government opponents that includes Burkinabe civilians and soldiers, living particularly in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, bent on destabilising the institutions of the country with the help of foreign powers.

 

Implicated so far are the former president, Lt. Col. Damiba; former foreign affairs ministers Djibril Bassolé and Alpha Barry; former president of the Commission Électorale Nationale Indépendante (CENI) Newton Ahmed Barry; and the former deputy mayor of Dori, a town in northeastern Burkina Faso, near the border of Niger, Aziz Diallo.

 

The Burkinabe government also reportedly dismissed its Ambassador to Ghana, Sini Pierre Sanou, after allegations surfaced linking him to the plot.

 

One name that has taken centre stage in the conspiracy is a Commandant Ahmed Kinda, a senior Burkina Faso Military officer. Alleged to have been overseeing several attempts to destabilise the Traoré-led government, he was caught among a group of insurgents in Niger while actively involved in the training and execution of acts of terror against Burkinabè people, the government said.

 

Before his arrest, Kinda is alleged to have been coordinating the movement of 150 insurgents from Central Africa Republic (CAR), transiting through Chad, to overthrow Captain Traoré.

 

According to Sana, there were audio recordings incriminating Burkinabè businessmen and civil society figures in the destabilisation plot as well. These intercepted communications revealed the involvement of several economic operators. Civil society leaders, said to be active in a WhatsApp group called “IB get out”, were also implicated.

 

In an official communiqué released by the military government about those it described as “enemies of the state”, it said three groups of operatives planned various attacks. One of the groups is said to have been responsible for the Barsalogho attack in August, with the objective of launching an attack on the Presidential Palace next.

 

The second group of operatives were assigned to carry out an attack on the country’s military drone base to weaken the military capabilities, and the third group came from Côte d’Ivoire with the objective to attack Mangodara, a town in the southwestern region.

 

The investigation by the Burkinabè authorities appears quite detailed, pinpointing the role each individual played in the expansive plot.

 

It reports that Diallo, former Mayor of Dori, who is currently working in the Central African Republic on behalf of an international organisation, is one of the presumed masterminds of the vast conspiracy.

 

Diallo is said to operate under the code name, Ahmed le centraux, keeping in contact with members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) through one of his uncles, Ousmane Moumouni Raouni Diallo, based in Dori and a former EIGS fighter and former coordinator of negotiations with Jihadist groups under former President Damiba.

 

A former National Intelligence Agency (ANR) staff, Aziz Dabo, is said to be on the run. He is known by the code name “lionel”.

 

The report also identifies one Abdoulaye Barry, known by the code name “the traveller”, as the link between the Western powers, terror groups and elements within the military.

 

A Nigerièn journalist of Ivorian origin, Serge Maturin, said to be representing “the traveller” in Niger, is alleged to have hosted Kinda on the night of August 29, 2024, to allow him escape. He was also to facilitate the infiltration of the entire commando in eastern Burkina Faso.

 

Within the military, the report states, some officers were identified as major accomplices in the plot. They include a Commander François Zoungrana, codenamed “Cesar”, and Commander Hermann Zongo, who provides information on the positions of air vectors and army movements. There were also a Commander Johanny Compaore, former Director General of Burkina Faso’s gas company, SONABHY, and Colonel Zalla, working in the United Nations system in Central Africa.

 

The Burkinabe government has also called out some West African and European states for their complicity in the plot, along with Jihadist groups and European mercenaries, implicating the French intelligence agency, DGSE.

 

The indictment of the DGSE has beamed the searchlight on France’s role in the Sahel region, and this stems from the arrest of four DGSE agents in Burkina Faso, which is believed to have stalled the organisation’s efforts, Burkinabè commentators claim.

 

In one of his addresses to the nation, Traoré spoke of an operation centre in Côte d’Ivoire set up to destabilise Burkina Faso and promised that the evidence would be released. Officials in Cote D’Ivoire criticised his remarks, describing it as unnecessarily provocative.

 

However, Burkinabè authorities, after Traoré’s assertions, released a number of audio recordings, not verified independently, of a Colonel Yves Didier Bamouni, said to be in charge of the country’s anti-terror operations, allegedly engaged in treasonable plots against the Burkinabè government.

 

Ivorian Vice President, Meyliet Tiemoko Koné, at the 79th UN General Assembly, called for the mobilisation of the international community in favour of the populations of the Sahel, who are paying a heavy price in the war against terror groups.

 

Sources in Burkina Faso, however, say this call by Koné is ironic, considering that the Burkinabè government considers Cote D’Ivoire to be one of the biggest supporters and enablers of French backed terror groups in the region and providing a safe heaven and a base from where these groups can launch attacks on Burkina Faso.

 

Traoré’s government currently holds the record of the most attempts at toppling a government in Africa, going by the reports. This has seen a heightened security alert across the country, establishing a culture of surveillance that many say has imposed severe restrictions on people.

 

The government continues to balance its objectives of Confronting what it describes as Western hegemonic control and rebuilding an economy battered over the years by an insurgency believed to be a fallout of this control.

 

In the process of building a strategic direction for addressing the country’s security threats, commentators suggest that Burkina Faso’s instability is likely to persist for some time yet as it fights both internal and external forces on three fronts.