Ibrahim Traore
Ibrahim Traore, a relatively low-ranking officer who days earlier was running an artillery regiment in a small northern town, Within in the space of a weekend, he shot from army captain to the world's youngest leader -- an ascent that stoked hopes but also fears for a poor and chronically troubled country. He catapulted onto the world stage, with some going as far as drawing parallels between him and Burkina Faso's famous revolutionary, Thomas Sankara - not surprising in a nation looking for political saviours after decades of misrule.
Traore was born in 1988 in Bondokuy, in western Burkina Faso, and studied geology in Ouagadougou. He chose a military career after completing his schooling in Burkina Faso's second city, Bobo-Dioulasso, with reports describing him as "shy and rather reserved" but also "very intelligent".
He graduated as an officer from the Georges Namonao Military School -- a second-tier institution compared to the prestigious Kadiogo Military Academy (PMK) of which Damiba and others in the elite are alumni. Traore emerged second in his class, a contemporary describing him as "disciplined and brave."
Having studied at a local military academy, joined the army in 2009 and received artillery training in Morocco. After graduation, he gained years of experience in the fight against the jihadists. He served in a UN force fighting the jihadists in Malit, and reportedly "showed bravery" in the face of a "complex attack" by militants in the northern Timbuktu region - famous for its centuries-old buildings - in 2018. The following year, he participated in a military operation codenamed Otapuanu in Burkina Faso's restive east for seven months. He also served in a detachment of Markoye in the northern Sahel region and took part in several operations there.
Hr headed to a posting in neighboring Mali in 2018 in the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission. He was appointed captain in 2020. A former superior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, recounted an incident that occurred in 2020 when the town of Barsalogho in central Burkina was on the verge of falling to the jihadists. The highway into Barsalogho was believed to have been mined, so Traore led his men on a "commando trek" across the countryside, arriving in time to free the town, he said.
In March 2022, Damiba promoted Traore to head of artillery in the Kaya regiment in the centre of the country. But it was a move that ironically would sow the seeds of Damiba's own downfall. The regiment became a cradle of discontent, and Traore, tasked by his colleagues with channelling their frustrations, made several trips to Ouagadougou to plead their case with Damiba. Disillusionment at the response turned into anger, which appears to have crystallised into resolve to seize power after an attack on a convoy in northern Burkina last month that left 27 soldiers and 10 civilians dead. "Captain Traore symbolises the exasperation of junior officers and the rank and file," said security consultant Mahamoudou Savadogo.
Traore led disgruntled junior officers on 30 September 2022 in the second coup in eight months in the West African country. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) strongly condemned the coup, saying that it came at an “inopportune” time when progress was being made towards a return to constitutional order. Damiba had himself seized power only in January 2022, forcing out Burkina Faso’s last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore. Demonstrators who rallied for Traore in Ouagadougou during the standoff with Damiba waved Russian flags and chanted anti-France slogans.
Ibrahim Traore was sworn in as interim president of Burkina Faso, several weeks after Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba was removed in a coup. At a ceremony on 21 October 2022, Traore pledged support for a transition leading to elections in July 2024 as he took the oath of office in the capital Ouagadougou under tight security.
After taking the oath, Traore, dressed in military fatigues and a scarf with the country’s national colours, said: “We are confronted with a security and humanitarian crisis without precedent. Our aims are none other than the reconquest of territory occupied by these hordes of terrorists,” he added. “Burkina’s existence is in danger”.
The official investiture followed an announcement earlier this week by the constitutional council, which said the 34-year-old Traore had been designated as “president of the transition, head of state, supreme chief of the national armed forces” by a national meeting of the country’s forces. In its statement, the council said it officially took note of Damiba’s “resignation” and “the vacancy of the presidency”.
Sam Mednick, a journalist in Ouagadougou, told Al Jazeera that Traore had stressed in his speech that the existence of the country was in peril and that it was a priority to make the nation secure. “Speaking to community leaders, soldiers and diplomats, they say he has many challenges ahead, one of them being that the army is not united,” Mednick said. “A lot of people still stand by his predecessor, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who was ousted and is now in Togo.”
Damiba was removed from power due to his perceived inability to deal with a worsening armed uprising in the country. “If Traore is not going to be able to show tangible progress quickly, people say he’s going to be ousted just like his predecessor,” Mednick said.
The United Nations said the humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso has become so dire that some women and children have eaten only leaves and salt for weeks. “Growing insecurity and blockades in many areas have left communities cut off from the rest of the country and facing growing hunger. Aid workers are struggling to reach these people who need assistance,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a statement.
A quarter of Burkina Faso’s population – nearly five million people – is in need of emergency assistance, yet less than a third of the needed $805m for the country’s response plan is funded. Attacks by armed groups, including some associated with al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), increased in mid-March 2022 despite the military government’s pledge to make security its top priority.
Traoré gave a historic speech at the Second Russia-Africa Summit, held in St. Petersburg from 27 to 28 July 3034. Attended by delegations from 49 African countries including 17 heads of state. the Summit was claimed to represent a key inflection point in the growing process of multipolarization, as the Global South moves away from Western US-centered hegemonic control.
"Russia is a family for Africa too. We are a family because we have the same history. Russia made enormous sacrifices to free the world from Nazism during the Second World War. The African people, our grandfathers, were also forcibly deported to help Europe get rid of Nazism. We share the same history in the sense that we are the forgotten peoples of the world, whether in history books, documentaries or films. We tend to dismiss the key role played by Russia and Africa in the fight against Nazism....
"The questions my generation is asking are the following. If I can summarize, it is that we do not understand how Africa, with so much wealth on our soil, with generous nature, water, sunshine in abundance—how Africa is today the poorest continent. Africa is a hungry continent. And how come there are heads of state all over the world begging? These are the questions we are asking ourselves, and we have no answers so far....
"My generation also asks me to say that because of this poverty, they are forced to cross the ocean to try to reach Europe. They die in the ocean, but soon they will no longer have to cross, because they will come to our palaces to seek their daily bread.
"As far as what concerns Burkina Faso today, for more than eight years we’ve been confronted with the most barbaric, the most violent form of imperialist neo-colonialism. Slavery continues to impose itself on us. Our predecessors taught us one thing: a slave who cannot assume his own revolt does not deserve to be pitied. We do not feel sorry for ourselves, we do not ask anyone to feel sorry for us. The people of Burkina Faso have decided to fight, to fight against terrorism, in order to relaunch their development.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
