TVC E, NEWS – Burkina Faso Army said on Sunday it has arrested eleven former members of the elite Burkinabe presidential security unit which staged a brief and failed coup last year.
According to senior military official Mahamadi Bonkoungou, all 11 individuals were former members of the RSP unit, which in September briefly seized power in a failed coup and took Burkina Faso’s interim president hostage.
Bonkoungou called for “collaboration” with the public, saying that after the attack security was stepped up and an investigation opened to find the perpetrators, and that police are still looking for 15 soldiers linked to the raid.
The attack on an arms depot was staged by “a dozen ex-RSP members” at around 4 a.m. (0400 GMT) Friday with a security guard injured in the attack, Bonkoungou said.
The perpetrators failed to take ammunition but stole several kalashnikovs and anti-tank rocket grenade launchers.
The army announced that it would release photos of the suspects still on the loose to “encourage the population to participate in their arrests”.
The attack did not claim any victims and the depot at Yimdi, 20 kilometres west of Ouagadougou, is now under the control of the army, the army said on Saturday.
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