A diplomatic source has claimed they are IT specialists, not intelligence agents
Authorities in Burkina Faso have arrested four French civil servants with diplomatic passports and visas on espionage allegations. They were detained earlier this month in the West African nation’s capital, Ouagadougou, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a French diplomatic source.
According to the unnamed source, the detainees are not intelligence agents, but rather IT specialists who had come to Burkina Faso to perform computer maintenance for the French Embassy.
On Tuesday, the French magazine Jeune Afrique claimed that four agents from France’s external intelligence agency, the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), had been arrested by Burkinabe authorities.
The outlet alleged that the arrests had prompted the departure of “a dozen of their colleagues” stationed in the former French colony.
A Burkinabe source who confirmed the reports to AFP said authorities were in the “process of verifying the real field work of four French nationals presented as agents of the DGSE.”
However, the French diplomat who spoke to Reuters said Paris had taken note of “ongoing legal proceedings, but rejects accusations that the technicians were sent to Burkina Faso for reasons other than their IT maintenance work. It calls for their immediate return to France.”
Relations between Paris and Ouagadougou have been strained since the Sahel nation’s military seized power in a coup in September last year, prompting France to recall its ambassador.