Burkina Faso Issues Arrest Warrant For Côte d'Ivoire Speaker Over Coup

Guillaume Soro is accused of advising Burkinabe officials on how to stage a coup AFP

Burkina Faso has issued an international arrest warrant for the speaker of parliament in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire over a short-lived coup last year, a judicial source said Friday.

AFP report continues:

The warrant for Guillaume Soro, a former Ivorian rebel leader and prime minister, was immediately deemed a "hostile act" by his aide Moussa Toure who said there "would be a response."

"An international arrest warrant was issued against Mr Soro in connection with the failed coup following telephone wiretaps," the source said.

The conversations allegedly took place between Soro and Djibrill Bassole, a former Burkina foreign minister under the country's ousted long-serving ruler Blaise Compaoré.

Soro was a leading figure in the 2011 low-level civil war in Côte d'Ivoire which split the world's top cocoa producer in half.

He was accused by partisans of then Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo of being backed by Burkina Faso's Compaoré, a charge the rebels denied.

According to the telephone taps the two men allegedly discussed backing a week-long coup in September in which elite soldiers seized power and briefly took Burkina Faso's interim president hostage.

They allegedly discussed "strikes" in Burkina Faso's north to create "panic", the source said.

In December, the Burkina prime minister at the time, Isaac Zidane, said the recordings were "authentic."

The putsch on September 17 was staged by crack troops from a presidential guard loyal to former head of state Compaoré, who was ousted in a popular uprising 2014.

The operation was thwarted by street protesters and support from the army, which attacked the plotters' barracks. At least 11 people were killed and 271 were injured in the demonstrations.

Côte d'Ivoire's parliamentary speaker Guillaume Soro delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Abidjan on December 18, 2015 ©Sia Kambou (AFP)

Côte d'Ivoire's Soro Warrant Over Burkina Coup

The BBC has confirmed media reports in Burkina Faso saying that the judiciary there has issued an international arrest warrant against Guillaume Soro, the current speaker of parliament in Côte d'Ivoire.

Burkina Faso's ex-Prime Minister Isaac Zida had already said that Mr Soro had been heard on a recording advising a former Burkinabe Foreign Minister Djibril Bassole on how stage a successful coup. 

Mr Bassole is under arrest in relation to September's short-lived coup.

Mr Soro has always denied that his voice is the one on the tape.