Morocco Reportedly Paid €60 Million for Release of French Agents in Burkina Faso

According to a French diplomatic source, the President of the Transition of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, had demanded around 150 million euros to obtain the release of the four French agents of the Directorate General of External Security (DGSE), accused of espionage, reveals Le Monde. A sum that Morocco is said to have paid. "Morocco paid 60 million euros and gave equipment to the Burkinabe," says a source close to the Moroccan Directorate General of Studies and Documentation (DGED). This information will however be "formally" denied by the DGSE.

The four French agents of the Directorate General of External Security (DGSE) had been arrested on December 1, 2023, on their arrival in Ouagadougou while they were on an official mission with the Burkinabe National Intelligence Agency, with which the DGSE continued its cooperation despite the deterioration of relations between France and Burkina Faso. They had computer maintenance work to do. Accused of espionage, they were imprisoned in Burkina Faso. The Togolese and Emirati mediations to obtain their release proved unsuccessful. Only the intervention of King Mohammed VI, with whom the kingdom maintains good relations with Ouagadougou, bore fruit.

Emmanuel Macron "spoke yesterday, Wednesday, December 18, 2024, by telephone with [...] King Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, in order to warmly thank him for the success of the mediation that made possible the release of our four compatriots held for a year in Burkina Faso," the Élysée had reacted in a statement.