African leader pardons soldiers decade after coup attempt
Burkina Faso's interim president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, has pardoned 21 soldiers convicted of attempting to overthrow the country's government nearly a decade ago, according to an official decree published by local media on Monday.
Traore reportedly announced an amnesty last December for several people sentenced over a 2015 plot to topple the transitional government in place after the forced resignation of former President Blaise Compaore. Compaore had come to power in a 1987 coup during which Pan-Africanist icon Thomas Sankara was assassinated.
'The following persons, who have been convicted or prosecuted before the courts for acts committed on September 15 and 16, 2015, are granted amnesty,'
Traore declared in the order, dated March 24, naming 21 soldiers.
The officers, including two former unit commanders of the former presidential guard, had been convicted by a military tribunal in Ouagadougou in 2019 for
'harming state security,'
murder, or treason.
According to AFP, Compaore's former chief of staff, Gilbert Diendere, and head of diplomacy, Djibril Bassole, two generals sentenced to 20 and ten years in prison, respectively, for allegedly masterminding the failed coup, were not included in the amnesty.
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The pardoned soldiers will rejoin the national army to fight terrorism in the country, the outlet reported. Traore vowed last year to recapture all the country's territory still under terrorist control by the end of 2025. The former French colony has been battling jihadist groups since 2015, including some affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Traore came to power in 2022 following back-to-back military coups. The first took place in January of that year, when the army removed former President Roch Kabore, accusing him of failing to quell the jihadist insurgency. Traore led a second coup in September, which deposed the previous transitional leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
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Last August, the landlocked country suffered one of the deadliest attacks since the insurgency spilled over from neighboring Mali over a decade ago. At least 200 people were reportedly killed and 169 others injured when Islamist militants opened fire on residents who were digging defensive trenches in the north-central town of Barsalogho.
The West African country and its neighbors, Mali and Niger, also under military rule, have severed defense ties with their former colonial power, France, citing meddling and the alleged failure of French forces to resolve the unrest. The three countries have established a new group – the Alliance of Sahel States – and have sought security cooperation with Russia, which has agreed to assist them in counter-terrorism efforts.
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