{"id":61588,"date":"2024-01-16T15:59:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T15:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources"},"modified":"2024-01-17T15:52:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T15:52:26","slug":"burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources","title":{"rendered":"Burkina\u2019s ex-gendarmerie chief kidnapped: sources"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>Burkina Faso\u2019s former chief of staff of the gendarmerie who was sacked in October has been abducted from his home by unidentified \u201carmed individuals\u201d, sources close to him said yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey sealed off the neighbourhood, surrounded his home before taking him,\u201d a security source close to the ex-police chief told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Lieutenant-colonel Evrard Somda was taken on Sunday from his home in the capital Ouagadougou, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know if it\u2019s an arrest on the orders of the military or judicial authorities, or if it\u2019s yet another kidnapping,\u201d another source close to Somda said.<\/p>\n<p>Somda was sacked a week after four police officers were detained on suspicions of involvement in a \u201cplot against state security\u201d which the ruling military regime said they had foiled.<\/p>\n<p>A respected officer, Somda had been in the post since February 2022 but saw his position weakened by the arrest of the four officers, who included two close associates.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, he was interviewed by the military justice system as a witness as part of an inquiry into the alleged plot.<\/p>\n<p>Influential businessman Sansan Anselme Kambou, who is also close to Somda, was kidnapped by intelligence agents in September.<\/p>\n<p>An administrative tribunal published an order for his release in November but his family says he has still not been freed.<\/p>\n<p>Local sources in Ouagadougou have reported several kidnappings over recent months.<\/p>\n<p>Former foreign minister Ablasse Ouedraogo, who is also ex-deputy director general of the World Trade Organization, was taken from his house by people saying they were police at the end of December, according to his opposition party Le Faso Autrement.<\/p>\n<p>Burkina\u2019s junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African nation in September 2022.<\/p>\n<p>His takeover was the country\u2019s second coup in eight months &#8212; both triggered in part by discontent at failures to stem a raging jihadist insurgency which swept in from Mali in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 20 000 people have died in the violence and more than two million have been internally displaced. &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\">Namibia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Namibia. Burkina Faso\u2019s former chief of staff of the gendarmerie who was sacked in October has been abducted from his home by unidentified \u201carmed individuals\u201d, sources close to him said yesterday. \u201cThey sealed off the neighbourhood, surrounded his home before taking him,\u201d a security source close to the ex-police chief told AFP. Lieutenant-colonel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-61588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Burkina\u2019s ex-gendarmerie chief kidnapped: sources - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Burkina Faso\u2019s former chief of staff of the gendarmerie who was sacked in October has been abducted from his home by uni ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Burkina\u2019s ex-gendarmerie chief kidnapped: sources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Burkina Faso\u2019s former chief of staff of the gendarmerie who was sacked in October has been abducted from his home by uni ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-16T15:59:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-17T15:52:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/01\/sm_1705410347.810926.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Burkina\u2019s ex-gendarmerie chief kidnapped: sources\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-16T15:59:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-17T15:52:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources\"},\"wordCount\":352,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/01\/sm_1705410347.810926.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/burkinas-ex-gendarmerie-chief-kidnapped-sources\",\"name\":\"Burkina\u2019s ex-gendarmerie chief kidnapped: sources - 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