Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta has said that it has thwarted a coup attempt following information from security and intelligence services.
In a nationwide broadcast on Wednesday, the junta said the incident occurred on Tuesday, September 26.
“At present, officers and other alleged participants in this destabilisation attempt have been arrested and others are being actively sought,” the junta said.
It said the perpetrators “had the sinister intention of attacking the institutions of the Republic and plunging the country into chaos”.
Junta leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore seized power on Sept. 30, 2022, the landlocked country’s second coup in eight months.
The two takeovers were each triggered in part by discontent at failures to stem a raging jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.
Late on Tuesday thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Ouagadougou following a call from Traoré supporters to “defend” him amid rumours of a coup on social media.
The military government said it would seek to shed “all possible light on this plot”.