Burkina Faso freezes assets of over 100 people for ‘terrorism financing’

Military-led Burkina Faso has frozen the “assets and resources” of more than 100 people, including ex-president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, and two jihadist groups over the “financing of terrorism”, according to a decree sent to AFP Thursday.

The decision affects 113 individuals and two “terrorist organisations” – the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) – according to the document, dated Tuesday and signed by Finance Minister Aboubacar Nacanabo.

Former president Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba, who is currently in exile in Togo, was among the individuals cited.

Damiba was ousted after seizing power in a January 2022 coup against elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

Little more than eight months later, Damiba himself was overthrown by 34-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore, who now heads the Sahel nation’s regime.

Damiba was expelled from the military at the end of October along with around 15 officers, for alleged acts of disclosing “intelligence with a foreign power” and “terrorist groups aimed at destabilising Burkina Faso”.

The regime also froze the assets of the late former Burkinabe special forces commander Ahmed Kinda, whom the authorities previously described as the “head” of “destabilisation operations” allegedly involving expelled officers.

Former intelligence services second-in-command Commander Sekou Ouedraogo, as well as exiled former ministers General Djibril Bassole, and Alpha Barry, who founded the press group Omega Media, were also named in the ministerial order.

Dozens of others – all Burkinabe nationals – including some currently serving prison sentences also had their finances seized over accusations of “terrorist criminal conspiracy”, “terrorist murders” and “illegal possession of firearms”.

Burkina Faso also banned the 113 individuals from travelling while their assets and economic resources remain frozen, the minister wrote.

Since 2015, violence attributed to armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group has claimed more than 26,000 lives in Burkina Faso, including more than 13,500 since the September 2022 coup.

More than two million people have also been forced to flee their homes inside the country.