Burkina Faso govt spokesperson denies media reports of coup attempt against interim president
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - The spokesperson of the Burkinabe government, Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, on Friday denied reports in the local press of an attempted coup last Sunday night against the president of the transition, Captain Ibrahim Traore.
"The president of the transition, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, never mentioned the term coup attempt. The president, in his face-to-face meeting with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), spoke of attempts at destabilisation; the terms have their meaning," he Ouédraogo said on Friday on the sidelines of a training workshop for journalists.
He said attempts at destabilisation and an attempted coup are not the same.
On Thursday evening, after the meeting between Captain Traoré and members of civil society, Burkinabe media quoted participants as saying Captain Traore told them he was the victim of a coup attempt last weekend.
"What the president said is that we are aware that there are attempts, they are known, they are followed, the situation is under control. The president spoke of a state of mind of the transition today. This is not the time for purges, this is not the time for witch-hunting," said the government spokesperson.
He maintained that the Transition is not in a purge dynamic and that the authorities were aware that the events of 30 September, which led to the coup against Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, "do not please everyone".
"So there was never any question of an attempted coup, because it implies a preparation and even the beginning of an execution," he said.
-0- PANA TNDD/JSG/BBA/MA 2Dec2022
