Four French officials accused of espionage and detained for a year in Burkina Faso have been released, AFP learned Thursday from the French Directorate General of Foreign Intelligence (DGSE), confirming information from the Moroccan press.
President Emmanuel Macron “spoke yesterday, Wednesday December 18, 2024, on the telephone with His Majesty King Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, to warmly thank him for the success of the mediation which made possible the release of our four compatriots detained for a year in Burkina Faso”, reacted the Elysée.
The four men were arrested in the Burkinabe capital on December 1, 2023 and presented by the authorities as agents of the DGSE.
A French diplomatic source then indicated that these were four civil servants, holders of diplomatic passports and visas, but rejected “the accusations according to which these technicians were sent to Burkina Faso for reasons other than their work computer maintenance”.
Since then, the French authorities have remained discreet about the fate of these four French people.
Relations between France and Burkina have deteriorated considerably since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in September 2022 through a coup – the second in eight months.
The French embassy has only been managed by a charge d’affaires since the Burkinabè authorities obtained the departure of ambassador Luc Hallade. In April, two political advisers at the embassy were declared “persona non grata” for “subversive activities” and asked to leave the country.
Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France in March 2023, after obtaining the withdrawal of French forces.
Burkina has since formed with Mali and Niger, which also expelled the French army from their soil, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). They cooperate in particular to contain recurring attacks by jihadist groups, at the same time as they are moving closer to other powers such as Russia.
This success of the mediation of the King of Morocco comes as Paris and Rabat sealed their reconciliation, embodied by a state visit by the French president at the end of October to Morocco, after three years of acute crisis.
On July 30, France opened the way to bilateral warming by providing its reinforced support to a Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, considering that it was “the only basis” allowing to resolve the nearly fifty-year conflict between Morocco and the separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers.
During his visit, Emmanuel Macron proposed to Mohammed VI to sign a new strategic partnership in 2025 in Paris on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration which sealed Morocco’s independence from France.
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