Worsening relations between the junta in Burkina Faso and former coloniser France have recently led to expulsion orders for diplomatic officials, including the French ambassador, and to the suspension of some French media.
No fewer than four French IT workers with diplomatic passports and visas have been arrested in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou.
The arrest was said to be in a context of very tense relations between Burkina Faso and France, a French diplomatic source said on Wednesday, denying a media report that they were intelligence agents.
"On December 1, four French officials, holders of diplomatic passports and visas, were arrested in Ouagadougou by the Burkinabè police.
"We are in the process of verifying the real field work of four French nationals presented as agents of the DGSE (External Intelligence, editor's note). They are currently before investigators,” said the Burkinabè source and computer maintenance technicians
Worsening relations between the junta in Burkina Faso and former coloniser France have recently led to expulsion orders for diplomatic officials, including the French ambassador, and to the suspension of some French media.
Reuters reports that the four civil servants came to the West African country to carry out IT maintenance for the French embassy, but were detained on December 1 and transferred to Ouagadougou prison on December 14.
French news magazine Jeune Afrique on Tuesday published an article saying that Burkina Faso had arrested four agents working for France's external intelligence agency DGSE, the equivalent of America's CIA or Britain's MI6.
These four technicians were in Burkina Faso to carry out a computer maintenance operation for the benefit of the French embassy".
"On December 14, they were indicted and transferred to the Ouagadougou detention and correction center," she continued.
According to the same source, "the French consulate general was able to exercise consular protection and visit them".
"The French government takes note of the ongoing legal proceedings, but rejects accusations that these technicians were sent to Burkina Faso for reasons other than their computer maintenance work. He requests their return to France without delay," concludes this diplomatic source.
According to a European diplomatic source, these French people "are known to their Burkinabe colleagues". The magazine Jeune Afrique wrote on Tuesday that the four men are accused of "espionage", the Burkinabe source also indicated.
"The brother country of Togo is helping to find a solution."
Relations between France and Burkina have been considerably degraded since Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in September 2022 by a coup d'état - the second in eight months.
After obtaining the withdrawal of French forces, Ouagadougou denounced a 1961 military agreement with France in March. The French ambassador to Ouagadougou who was recalled after the coup d'état of September 2022, has not been replaced.