Four French officials were arrested in Ouagadougou at the beginning of December, in a context of very tense relations between Burkina Faso and France, we learned Tuesday evening. They are accused of being intelligence agents, according to a Burkinabe source at AFP. “We are in the process of verifying the real field work of four French nationals presented as agents of the DGSE (Foreign Intelligence). They are currently before the investigators.”
Claims denied by Paris: according to a diplomatic source, the four French people arrested on December 1, “holders of diplomatic passports and visas” are computer technicians. They were “in Burkina Faso to carry out a maintenance operation for the benefit of the French embassy”. “On December 14, they were indicted and transferred to the Ouagadougou prison and correctional facility,” she continued.
Accused of “espionage”
The same source adds that “the French consulate general was able to exercise consular protection and visit them”. “The French government takes note of the ongoing legal proceedings, but rejects the accusations according to which these technicians were sent to Burkina Faso for reasons other than their computer maintenance work. It requests their return to France without delay,” concludes this diplomatic source. According to a European diplomatic source, these French people “are known to their Burkinabè colleagues”.
The magazine Jeune Afrique wrote on Tuesday that the four men are accused of “espionage”.
Strained relations with Paris
Relations between France and Burkina have deteriorated considerably since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in September 2022 in a coup – the second in eight months. Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France in March, after obtaining the withdrawal of French forces. The French ambassador to Ouagadougou, recalled after the coup d’état of September 2022, has not been replaced since.
But despite these tensions, Jeune Afrique believes that French agents of the DGSE maintained “technical and operational cooperation” with the Burkinabé National Intelligence Agency (ANR). This affair could therefore be “a pretext to force the entire service to leave”, and led to the departure of a dozen DGSE agents from Ouagadougou.
Competition from Russian services?
At the same time, several Burkinabe sources indicate to Jeune Afrique “that around twenty Russian nationals – probably members of the GRU, military intelligence” have been collaborating with Ouagadougou since November.
In its desire to diversify its partnerships, Burkina Faso has in fact moved closer to Russia this year. In addition to ties in the military field, Russia has notably promised to build a nuclear power plant in Burkina.
In November, Ouagadougou was one of the first African countries to receive free Russian cereals, as promised a few months earlier by Vladimir Putin. Burkina has also moved closer to its two neighbors, Mali and Niger, also governed by military regimes.