CAR is one of the world’s poorest and least stable countries, and the government of Bozize has claimed over the years to have uncovered several coup plans, including one earlier this year.

“Interrogations are ongoing, but the three plotters have already confessed their plan to overthrow the head of state,” Alain Tomo said at a press conference.

Tomo said one of the suspects is former Chadian army officer Job Nendobe Bergueba, who was hoarding a stash of automatic rifles, grenades and communications equipment at his residence.

The three were arrested on Oct. 9. Bozize came to power in 2003 after leading a rebellion and he has since won elections broadly criticised as flawed. He sacked his finance minister in June after accusing him of plotting a separate putsch.

Landlocked CAR has for years been plagued by rebel groups, and in September gunmen from the Ugandan Lords Resistance Army killed one of its soldiers in an ambush in the remote east of the country.