ABIDJAN: Burkina Faso’s military government said Tuesday it had arrested eight members of a humanitarian group, including three Europeans, accusing them of “spying and treason.”
Security Minister Mahamadou Sana said the eight were members of INSO, a Netherlands-based group specializing in humanitarian safety, and included a Frenchman, a French-Senegalese woman, a Czech man, a Malian and four Burkinabe nationals.
Those arrested included the country director of the NGO in the west African state and his deputy, Sana said.
The director had previously been arrested at the end of July when the NGO was suspended for three months by the authorities for “collecting sensitive data without authorization.”
The NGO, based in The Hague, provides security analyzes for other humanitarian organizations.
Sana alleged it “collected and passed on sensitive security information that could be detrimental to national security and the interests of Burkina Faso, to foreign powers.”
He said that despite being banned from operating on July 31, some members “continued to clandestinely or covertly conduct activities such as information collection and meetings in person or online.”
Burkina Faso’s military junta has turned away from the West and in particular its former colonial master France since seizing power in a September 2022 coup.
Burkinabe authorities often repress dissent, notably within civil society and the media, claiming it as part of the battle against militant violence that has plagued the country for a decade.