Eight Burkina Faso soldiers accused of plot to ‘destabilize institutions’

 

Eight soldiers, including a high-ranking commander, have been detained over a “plot to destabilize” Burkina Faso’s institutions, military prosecutors and security sources said Tuesday.

The military prosecutor’s office in the capital, Ouagadougou, said it had learned of an “allegation of a project to destabilize the institutions of the republic being planned by a group of soldiers.”

The office learned of the plot on Saturday after “a member of the gang” denounced the plan, it said in a statement.

An investigation has been launched and eight soldiers have been detained for questioning, the statement added.

Security sources told AFP that Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana, the commander of western forces fighting militants in the country, was among those arrested.