Captain Ibrahim Traoré — The New Face of Africa?

Captain Ibrahim Traore has made shockwaves across Africa and the wider world. Burkina Faso’s interim President is hailed as a revolutionary leader, extricating his country from the clutches of French colonial rule.

In 2022, Traore took power in a coup d'état, ousting interim president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who himself took power extraconstitutionally.

Captain Traore justified this move by his predecessors' alleged inability to control the rising Jihadist insurgency.

Weakening leadership in the Sahel Region created a power vacuum, which has allowed ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliated groups to expand, exacerbating instability and the ever-worsening (and often overlooked) humanitarian crisis.

U.S. Africa Command General Michael Langley, in an exclusive interview with Citizen TV in May 2025, described Burkina Faso as the “epicentre of global terrorism”, adding that there needs to be “sufficient resources” going towards the regional battle against this threat.

Over two years into his rule, Traore, despite shrugging off several reported coups and assassination attempts, has made some significant strides. This includes the ousting of France, which saw the country take more control over its mineral reserves.

Two new tomato processing plants have opened during his tenure, which aims to reduce tomato puree imports and boost local production

In early 2025, the country made history, launching its first 100% electric vehicle, named ITAOUA, which is designed and assembled by local engineers.

There are also reports that he’s slashed top government officials’ salaries by 30%, increased civil servant workers’ wages by 50%, and refuses to pay himself a presidential salary. Some experts, however, are sceptical, as there’s little evidence to prove these developments, and local media haven’t reported it either.

The World Bank estimated a GDP growth of 5.5% in 2024, bringing its GDP to $21.9 billion.

Burkina Faso has rejected loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has also left the regional economic community ECOWAS, along with Niger and Mali, which they claim is an extended arm of Western interests

Despite some promising developments, there’s a side to Traore’s rule that is often under-reported, particularly due to the state’s crackdown on the press and political dissent.

Multiple local and international bodies, including the Media Foundation for West Africa, accuse the government of free speech violations, with Human Rights Watch reporting the abduction of three journalists in March 2025 for supporting the suppression of the media.

Over a dozen foreign media outlets have been banned, making verifiable stories far less accessible to the wider world, leading some to ask what the government may be hiding.

Independent sources suggest that violence in Burkina Faso is at some of its highest levels in years. The national army has been accused of leading and/or allowing massacres of hundreds of civilians under Traore’s rule, including the murder of at least 130 people in an attack in early 2025.

Traore currently has control of only half of Burkina Faso’s territory, with the other half in the hands of Islamic terrorists, forcing many to flee to nearby countries.

Al-Qaeda affiliated Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed to have killed at least 200 people and injured another 140 in an attack in October 2024. Residents say they were forced by the army to dig trenches, before a gang on motorbikes arrived, shooting at them.

Footage shows bodies left lying lifeless in the trenches in the aftermath.

The same terror group in May 2025 claimed to kill 200 soldiers in another attack, although the army says the numbers were exaggerated.

JNIM claims to have committed 280 attacks in Burkina Faso in the first half of 2025 – that’s two times more than the same period in 2024.

The Norwegian Refugee Council describes it as the most neglected crisis in the world, due to a continuing collapse of international counterterrorism support, as well as weakening leadership in regional efforts.