Togo has arrested and extradited Burkina Faso’s former leader to his home country, after authorities in Ouagadougou accused him of plotting to kill his successor.

Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba – who came to power in a coup in 2022 before himself being overthrown by Ibrahim Traoré eight months later – is accused by the current regime of masterminding an assassination attempt against Traoré.

According to the Togolese justice ministry, Damiba was handed over to the Burkinabè authorities on Saturday.

It says as part of the deal, Burkina Faso promised to ensure “physical integrity, dignity and fair‑trial rights of Mr Paul‑Henri Sandaogo Damiba, and the absence of the death penalty”.

Among the charges levelled at Damiba by Burkina Faso’s military government are “criminal embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, corruption, aggravated receiving of stolen goods and money laundering”, said Togo’s justice ministry in a statement.

No comments from Damiba on the charges have been reported and neither have the BBC’s calls to him been picked up.

Most serious are the murder plot allegations.

Earlier this month, Burkina Faso’s Security Minister Mahamadou Sana announced on state television that security forces had foiled a planned series of targeted assassinations aimed at destabilising the state, including what he called the “neutralisation” of Traoré.

Officials in Ouagadougou have repeatedly accused Damiba of orchestrating plots from exile. In late 2024, he was again named publicly as the head of what authorities described as the “military wing” of a broader conspiracy.

Damiba first seized power in January 2022, toppling the elected government of Roch Marc Christian Kaboré amid frustration over the state’s failure to curb Islamist violence.

But after just eight months, he was himself overthrown by Traoré, then a 34‑year‑old artillery officer who accused him of failing to deliver security improvements.

Since then, the Traoré-led junta has tightened its grip on the country, expelling French forces, adopting an assertive nationalist stance and recently reinstating the death penalty, including for crimes of high treason.

Despite promises to restore order, Burkina Faso remains mired in one of the world’s most severe security crises, with militant jihadist attacks continuing across large parts of the country.

The return of Damiba to Burkina Faso, under arrest and possibly facing a long list of criminal charges, is expected to escalate tensions within the military and political establishment.

Political observers suggest that repeated accusations, foiled plots and widening divisions within the armed forces will likely lead to questions about the stability of a government still confronting both a brutal insurgency and internal rivalries.

Source: BBC

The government of Benin says it has foiled an attempted coup by members of the West African nation’s armed forces.

“The Beninese armed forces and their leadership, true to their oath, remained committed to the republic,” Interior Minister Alassane Seidou said in a televised address.

Earlier on Sunday, a group of soldiers made a broadcast in which they said they had ousted President Patrice Talon. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that they had heard gunshots, and some journalists working for the state broadcaster had been held hostage.

A presidential adviser has since told the BBC the president was in a safe location.

French diplomats denied earlier reports that he had taken refuge at France’s embassy in Cotonou, Benin’s largest city and the seat of the country’s government.

There have been a series of coups in West Africa before Sunday’s thwarted attempt in Benin, heightening fears that the security of the region could worsen.

Benin, a former French colony, has been regarded as one of Africa’s more stable democracies. But Talon has faced accusations of suppressing criticism of his policies.

The nation is one of the continent’s largest cotton producers, but ranks among the world’s poorest countries.

Seidou said in his address that “a small group of soldiers launched a mutiny aimed at destabilising the state and its institutions”, adding that loyalist soldiers had been able “to retain control of the situation and foil the attempt”.

Fourteen people have been arrested in connection with the attempted coup, government spokesperson Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji told news agency Reuters.

A journalist in Benin told the BBC that, of those reportedly arrested, 12 are believed to have stormed the offices of the national TV station – including a soldier who had previously been sacked.

Source: BBC

Hannibal Gaddafi, the youngest son of the deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been released by Lebanon after nearly 10 years in detention without trial.

The Lebanese authorities seized Mr Gaddafi, now 49, in 2015, accusing him of concealing information about the fate of a Lebanese Shia cleric who disappeared in Libya in 1978, when he was just two.

Human rights groups had denounced the accusations.

His lawyer told the AFP news agency his $900,000 (£682,938) bail had been paid.

Laurent Bayon said: “It’s the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years.”

In October, a judge set a $11m bail against Gaddafi’s release but this was reduced last week after an appeal by his defence team, according to AFP.

Mr Bayon said his client would leave Lebanon for a “confidential” destination.

“If Gaddafi was able to be arbitrarily detained in Lebanon for 10 years, it’s because the justice system was not independent,” Bayon said, according to AFP.

In 2015, Mr Gaddafi was briefly abducted by an armed group in Lebanon before being freed. He was later detained by Lebanese authorities.

After his father was overthrown by rebels and killed in 2011, he fled to Syria and then had lived under house arrest in Oman with his wife Aline Skaf.

Before the fall of his father’s regime Mr Gaddafi was known for his lavish lifestyle.

The disappearance of Shia cleric Musa al-Sadr in Libya in 1978 has been a source of tension between Libya and Lebanon for decades.

Hannibal Gaddafi was only two at the time and held no senior position in Libya as an adult.

Source: BBC