Four French officials, accused of espionage and detained since 1 December 2023 in Burkina Faso, were released on Thursday 19 December by the French Directorate General of Foreign Intelligence (DGSE). President Emmanuel Macron expressed his joy at this release by thanking King Mohammed VI for his decisive role in the mediation, reports the France24 TV channel. “The Head of State spoke yesterday, Wednesday 18 December, with the King of Morocco to thank him warmly for the success of this mediation”.
Arrested in Ouagadougou a year ago, the four men had been presented by the Burkinabe authorities as espionage agents. However, a French diplomatic source clarified that they were public officials on an official mission, with passports and diplomatic visas. The same source strongly denied any accusation related to espionage activities, explaining that the people involved were working on IT maintenance projects.
This Moroccan mediation is part of a context of rapprochement between Paris and Rabat after three years of diplomatic tensions. Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Morocco at the end of October 2024 marked a key step towards the normalization of bilateral relations.
The release
Burkina Faso’s junta-led government said Thursday it had released four French citizens it described as spies, following negotiations with France mediated by Morocco. The West African nation’s news agency said in a statement that Captain Ibrahim Traore, the country’s president, welcomed Morocco’s diplomatic efforts and noted that relations between France and Burkina Faso have soured in the recent years.
In a post published on Thursday, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu described the detainees as belonging to the French armed forces. The four were arrested in Ouagadougou in December 2023 on charges that Jeune Afrique and French media reported as linked to espionage. Their detention came at a critical moment in France’s relations with its former colonies in the Sahel, including Burkina Faso. After two coups, the landlocked nation of 20 million people expelled French forces and turned to Russia for security support.
Since then, the ruling junta has joined forces with neighboring countries to form the Alliance of Sahel States. The three countries of the alliance, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, have struggled to contain humanitarian and security crises.
