In Burkina Faso, Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana was arrested on Tuesday December 27 and taken to Ouagadougou from his home in Pabré. This respected soldier within the army had just been released on bail less than a fortnight ago after being arrested in January, accused of an attempted putsch against former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. This new arrest has caused tensions, with supporters united to prevent the arrest.
The face-to-face lasted for hours in front of the home of the Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana : relatives and sympathizers of the officer tried to oppose his arrest in Pabré, about twenty kilometers from the Burkinabè capital.
Finally, the gendarmes entered and left with Lieutenant-Colonel Zoungrana, his wife and his brother. According to information from RFI, the officer could have driven his vehicle himself under escort of the gendarmerie, in the direction of Ouagadougou and the premises of the military justice.
Officially, there has been no communication on the reasons for this new arrest of the former commander of the northern sector forces in the fight against terrorism.
” We have not been contacted in this case. If it was under the old procedure, the law requires that we be informed. We also learned that gendarmes were at his home to take him to the prosecutor, but at this stage we cannot say what he is accused of. “Explained someone close to the case of the attempted coup against the regime of ex-president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. In this context, he had spent 11 months in detention.
This arrest comes as, on December 15, the military justice had ordered his provisional release.
Zoungrana denounced attacks on his person during his detention
In a video broadcast before his arrest, Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana denounced several assassination attempts against his person in the house of arrest and correction of the armies, as well as at his home.
” Armed drones have flown over my home for five days since I was released on bail “, he pointed out, sitting on a sofa and quite relaxed. He explains why, according to him, the current authorities fear him: I fought for Burkina Faso. The rest is politics. And in politics, if you are embarrassing, either we liquidate you, or we throw you in prison or we push you into exile “, he says there.
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