The Burkina Faso authorities announced Thursday the expulsion from the country of two French nationals arrested for alleged acts of espionage, without further details about what happened.
According to information gathered by the Burkinabe state news agency, AIB, the suspects were arrested during the night of December 17-18 for their interest in the activities of the security forces in their fight against terrorism.
The decision comes against the backdrop of heightened bilateral tensions between Burkina Faso’s military junta and France, which has been critical of the rapprochement between Ouagadougou and Moscow amid allegations of the alleged deployment of mercenaries from the Wagner Group, owned by an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Burkina Faso, ruled by a military junta since the January coup against the then president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, has generally experienced a significant increase in insecurity since 2015. The junta is now led by Ibrahim Traoré, who led an uprising in September that was considered a ‘palace coup’ by a sector opposed to the hitherto leader, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
The attacks, the work of both Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates in the region, have also contributed to an increase in inter-community violence and have led to the flourishing of self-defense groups, to which the Burkinabe government has added ‘volunteers’ to help in the fight against terrorism. The deteriorating security situation has led to a wave of internally displaced persons and refugees to other countries in the region.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
