BURKINA FASO’S government said on Tuesday that it has arrested eight people working for a humanitarian organisation, accusing them of “spying and treason.”

Burkina Faso’s Security Minister Mahamadou Sana said the eight people arrested worked for the International NGO Safety Organisation (Inso), a Netherlands-based group specialising in humanitarian safety.

Mr Sana reported that those detained included a French man, a French-Senegalese woman, a Czech man, a Malian and four Burkinabe nationals.

Mr Sana said the staff members had continued working for the organisation after it was banned for three months, for allegedly “collecting sensitive data without authorisation.”

The security minister claimed some of Inso’s staff had “continued to clandestinely or covertly conduct activities such as information collection and meetings in person or online” following the ban.

Mr Sana added that Inso staff members had “collected and passed on sensitive security information that could be detrimental to national security and the interests of Burkina Faso, to foreign powers.”

But the Hague-based humanitarian organisation issued a statement on Tuesday saying it “categorically” rejected the allegations about its activities in Burkina Faso.

In a statement the group said: “[We] remain committed to doing everything in our power to secure the safe release of all our colleagues.”

Inso also claimed it collects information “exclusively for the purpose of keeping humanitarians safe,” and that the information it gathers “is not confidential and is largely already known to the public.”

Burkina Faso’s military government came to power in a September 2022 coup.

Together with neighbouring Mali and Niger, which are also military led governments, it has also withdrawn from regional and international organisations in recent months, with the three countries forming their own Alliance of Sahel States.

The three west African countries have kicked out the meddling of former colonial ruler, France, and have pursued a more independent domestic and foreign policy line.