ABORTED COUP: Burkina Faso Junta Says Assassination Plot Against Leader Ibrahim Traoré Was Foiled.
Burkina Faso’s military government says it has thwarted a plot to assassinate the country’s leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, accusing a former junta chief and unnamed foreign backers of orchestrating a late-stage coup attempt that could have plunged the fragile West African nation into deeper turmoil.
In a late-night televised address, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana said intelligence services disrupted what he described as a “sophisticated operation” led by Lt. Col. Paul Henri Damiba, the officer Traoré overthrew in September 2022. According to Sana, the plan aimed not only to kill the head of state but also to attack key military installations and prominent civilian figures.
“Our intelligence services intercepted this operation in its final hours,” Sana said, alleging the plot was financed from neighboring Ivory Coast — a claim Abidjan has not commented on. Damiba, who has been living in exile since his ouster, has also issued no response.
Sana said authorities uncovered a leaked video allegedly showing the conspirators discussing how to assassinate Traoré, either at close range or by planting explosives at his residence, shortly after 11 p.m. local time on Saturday, January 3. Afterward, the group planned to strike additional targets, including senior military officers and civilian personalities.
The minister further claimed that the plotters intended to sabotage Burkina Faso’s drone-launch base to delay or prevent intervention by foreign forces, and that they had mobilized both soldiers and civilian supporters. He alleged that roughly 70 million CFA francs — about $125,000 — had been delivered from Ivory Coast to fund the operation.
Sana said several arrests have already been made and investigations are ongoing, though he did not specify how many people are in custody. “These individuals will be brought to justice,” he said, urging the public not to be “misled into dangerous schemes.”
Since taking power, Traoré, 37, has survived at least two previous coup attempts while confronting an expanding jihadist insurgency that has displaced millions and destabilized large swaths of the country. Despite mounting security and economic pressures — and criticism from rights groups over alleged repression, arbitrary arrests and media restrictions — Traoré retains significant domestic support and has built a wider regional following for his pan-Africanist rhetoric and sharp criticism of Western influence.
The allegations are likely to deepen tensions within Burkina Faso and across the region, particularly with Ivory Coast, which the junta has previously accused of meddling in its internal affairs.
Damiba, who ruled Burkina Faso for eight months after toppling an elected government in January 2022, fled to neighboring Togo after Traoré seized power. At the time, he publicly wished his successor well — a contrast to the junta’s latest claim that he was plotting a violent return.
Whether the alleged plot was as advanced as described, or whether it reflects broader internal power struggles within Burkina Faso’s military, remains difficult to independently verify. What is clear is that the country’s political instability — already fueled by insurgency and repeated coups — shows no sign of easing.
