Burkina Faso’s government has detained the leaders of an NGO over claims of illicit intelligence gathering
Burkina Faso’s government has arrested eight workers for a Netherlands-based NGO on charges of spying. The operations of the International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO) had already been suspended for allegedly collecting sensitive data without authorization.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana told reporters that the activities of the organization had been monitored for some time. According to him, thanks to the “contribution of citizens,” the authorities were able to determine that the NGO “constituted an espionage network in Burkina Faso.”
Sana stated that, despite the earlier suspension, “some officials continued to carry out clandestine or disguised activities such as gathering information and holding meetings in person or online.”
The eight arrested people comprise four foreign nationals – two French citizens, one Czech, and one Malian national – as well as four citizens of Burkina Faso. INSO had operated in the Sahel country since 2019 but was suspended on July 31 of this year.
Investigations reportedly found that the organization collected details on military convoy routes, Defense and Security Forces (SDF) positions and movements, GPS coordinates of contact zones with armed groups, as well as data on security incidents, attacks, casualties, and local events.
According to Burkina24, NGO country director Jean Christophe Emile Pegon and deputy director Aminata Marianne Guisse admitted during questioning that they had directed their teams to collect security-related information. However, INSO denied any wrongdoing, stating that “the information we collect is not confidential and is largely already known to the public.”
In neighboring Mali, two generals and a French national named Yann Vezilier were arrested in August over alleged involvement in a coup plot. France confirmed that Vezilier was an embassy employee but denied that he was involved in an alleged attempt to overthrow the West African country’s military government. Relations between Sahel states and Paris have deteriorated in recent years amid allegations that France is sponsoring terrorism in an attempt to undermine military regimes in the Sahel.
