Burkina Faso Arrests Eight NGO Workers on Espionage Charges

By Staff, Agencies

Burkina Faso has arrested eight employees of the Netherlands-based International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO) on charges of espionage, accusing them of gathering sensitive security data without authorization.

Security Minister Mahamadou Sana said on Tuesday that authorities had been monitoring the group’s activities “for some time” and determined, with help from citizens, that the NGO “constituted an espionage network in Burkina Faso.”

The arrests include two French nationals, one Czech, one Malian, and four Burkinabe citizens.

INSO’s operations in the country were already suspended on July 31, after officials accused it of illegally collecting information.

Sana alleged that despite the suspension, “some officials continued clandestine or disguised activities,” including data collection and online meetings.

Investigators reportedly found that the organization gathered information on military convoy routes, troop positions, and security incidents, as well as GPS coordinates of conflict zones.

Local outlet Burkina24 reported that INSO’s country director Jean Christophe Emile Pegon and deputy director Aminata Marianne Guisse admitted during questioning that their teams had been instructed to gather security-related data.

In a statement, INSO denied wrongdoing, saying that the data it collects “is not confidential and is largely available to the public,” emphasizing that its mission is to enhance the safety of humanitarian workers.

Burkina Faso, battling armed groups across its northern and eastern regions, has grown increasingly wary of foreign organizations, expelling several in recent years over alleged security breaches.