NEW KID ON THE AFRICAN BLOCK: IBRAHIM TRAORE, SANKARA INCARNATE? (see Video)
Ibrahim Traoré (born 14 March 1988) is a Burkinabé politician and soldier who is the 5th and current President of Burkina Faso since 6 October 2022.
He removed his predecessor, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba from
power following the September 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état. At age 36, Traoré
is currently the the second youngest serving state leader in the world, and the
youngest serving president.
He became the world’s youngest head of state in September,
when he and other junior military officers ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri
Damiba, who had also ascended to the presidency through a coup in January.
Justifying why they were removing Damiba from office, Traore
said in a televised address on October 1, 2022 that the embattled head of state
had failed to tackle the perennial problem of insurgency.
Damiba had been ousted by Traore, who was seven years his
junior, and two positions lower than him in the military chain of command.
In the military hierarchy, Traore is in the rank of
Capitaine, a French word for Captain. There are three ranks above that of
captain. They are Commandant, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel respectively.
The 36-year-old captain, Burkina Faso’s new strongman, took
part in Lieutenant Colonel Damiba’s coup d’état in January 2022. Surfing on the
discontent of the officers of his generation towards their elder, Traoré is now
heading up the transition in Burkina Faso.
Being a former French colony, Burkina Faso adopted France’s military command structure.
Whereas many people describe Traore’s rise as meteoric,
within the military circles his rise to the top was just around the corner.
After serving in relatively junior positions in Burkina
Faso’s military, Traore’s major stride came in 2014, when he was deployed to
Mali as a soldier under the United Nations peacekeeping mission programme,
MINUSMA.
Soldiers within Burkina Faso’s military told the country’s
Radio Omega in the past that Traore, during his deployment to Mali, “showed
bravery.”
Aged 26 at the time, Traore overcame a “complex attack” by
militant extremists in the northern Timbuktu region, an unnamed source told
Radio Omega.
The source further
said that Traore, who was a lieutenant at the time, exhibited leadership
attributes, including “being wilful, courageous and close to his men.”
Besides the assignment in Mali, Traore also featured
prominently in the fights against insurgency in his native Burkina Faso between
2019 and 2022. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 2020.
Protected by his Russian allies and convinced that he has
been invested with a mission, Ibrahim Traoré is a messianic figure for his
supporters, and a paranoid autocrat for his detractors. To both, the
self-proclaimed president remains an enigma.
Shortly after staging a coup against Damiba’s administration
in September 2022, Traore acknowledged that his age, 34 then, would be a
subject of discussion among those questioning his presidential credentials.
“I know that I am younger than most of you here. We did not
want what happened (coup against Damiba), but we did not have a choice,"
he told government officials in October 2022.
The international shine on him appeared to have faded until
July 2023, when he accompanied 16 other African heads of state to Saint
Petersburg in Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, who had
organised the Russia-Africa Summit.
His fellow presidents were dressed in their characteristic custom-tailored, expensive suits. But the towering Traore, who is slightly above six feet in height, showed up in military combat clothing, complete with a red beret and tactical gloves.
While walking past the security officers who were saluting
the arriving heads of state at the summit’s venue, Expo Forum, Traore was one
of the few, if not the only visiting president, who saluted back.
If that did not appeal to the world’s optics, his muscular
physique and unique presence, even in Putin’s proximity, did when he posed for
a photograph with the Russian leader.
The saluting, the picture with Putin and the dress code
earned him the attention, but his speech during the Russia-Africa Summit held
between July 27 and 28, earned him plaudits.
“The problem is seeing African heads of state, who bring
nothing to people who are struggling, singing the same song as the imperialists
who call us ‘militia’. As a result, they end up referring to us as people who
do not respect human rights,” Traore said.
“We, African heads of state, must stop acting like
marionettes who dance each time the imperialists pull on our strings.”
Originally from Bondokuy, in the agricultural west of the
country, Traoré is a man of the bush, frank and direct, who joined the army
after a degree in geology at the University of Ouagadougou.
He passed through the Georges-Namoano military academy in
Pô, Burkina Faso, where, according to some military sources, he did not take
kindly to the harshness of his instructors.
Disgusted by what he had seen during operations, he despised
the hierarchy, in which superior officers sat in air-conditioned headquarters
while their men were slaughtered by jihadists amid general indifference.
At the summit in Russia, Traore went ahead to blast African
presidents who “are happy to receive freebies.”
“Yesterday (July 27), President Vladimir Putin announced
that (free) grain would be shipped to Africa. This is pleasing, and we say
thank you for this. However, this is also a message to our African heads of
state.”
“At the next forum, we must not come here without having
ensured the self-sufficiency of the food supply for our people. We must learn
from the experience of those who have succeeded in achieving this…,” Traore
said.
His remarks were likened to those made in the early 1980s by
the revered Thomas Sankara, who, just like Traore, ascended to the Burkina
Faso’s presidency through a coup.
On October 4, 1984, Sankara, in an equally major international platform, the United Nations General Assembly, said: “Our economic ambition is to use the strength of the people of Burkina Faso to provide, for all, two meals a day and drinking water.”
On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated by troops led
by Blaise Compaoré, who assumed leadership of the country shortly thereafter.
Compaoré retained power until the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising. In 2021 he was
formally charged by a military tribunal for the murder of Sankara.
On social media, Traore has been referred to as Sankara
incarnate. Amid a major famine in Western Africa that had ravaged
Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad and Niger in the early 1980s, Sankara staged a coup
against the French leadership in Burkina Faso on August 4, 1983.
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The Pan-African revolutionary would go ahead to win the
hearts of many citizens of Burkina Faso by introducing measures to address
foreign debt and extreme hunger that had caused excessive suffering.
Whereas hunger remains one of Burkina Faso’s main challenges
today, insecurity is even a bigger problem.
Traore has pledged to fight extremist violence, and has
called for support from new allies, including Russia. He says his soldiers need
training, equipment and intelligence-gathering to up their game against the
militant extremists.
Amid the high praise, some political observers say that
Traore has not yet done something concrete for the people of Burkina Faso to
draw the strong approval.
Nigerian Public Affairs commentator Achike Chude says Traore
needs “to put certain structures on the ground” that would allow him to build a
reputable legacy.
“Will he improve on the challenges that he highlighted about
his predecessor? Leaders who ascend to the presidency through a coup have to
walk the talk,” Chude said.
“We do not have a
definite knowledge about what is motivating him. He could be motivated by
selfish interests. He could also be motivated by a genuine and patriotic
national interest,” Chude said.
After his trip to Russia in July, Captain Ibrahim Traore
received a grand welcome by thousands of Burkina Faso citizens, who had lined
up on the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou.
Traore studied at a local military academy and thereafter
joined the army in 2009, when he was 21 years old. He acquired artillery skills
in the North African nation of Morocco.
Traore settled on a military career after completing his
secondary education in Bobo-Dioulasso City, southwest of Burkina Faso. Reports
state he is a “shy and reserved person”, but “highly intelligent.”
Prior to removing Damiba from office, he was the head of an
artillery regiment in Burkina Faso.
Immediately after the September 2022 coup, Traore declared
himself the new head of the Patriotic Movement for Conservation and Restoration,
and five days later, on October 6, he announced that he was Burkina Faso’s new
transitional president.
He has promised to return power to civilian authorities in Burkina Faso by July 2024.
In reality, he’s almost a kind of vice-president. IB (as he
is fondly calledby Burkinabes)doesn’t
take any important decisions unless they are approved by Kassoum Coulibally, who
is also in charge of propaganda and mobilising the junta’s supporters
especially the young people who will hold up a few roundabouts in the city
centre to show solidarity with their hero.
Traoré’s inner circle also includes several of his close
day-to-day collaborators, such as his chief of staff, Captain Anderson Medah;
his private chief of staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Isamël Diaouari; and the head of
his security, Lieutenant Aziz Pacmogda.
Traore raised dust recently with the acquisition of high-end
sophisticated military hardware from Turkey. The quality and quantity of the various
equipment is unprecedented in Africa. This has raised suspicion of a cold war
in Africa.
Since his emergence as the leader of Burkina Faso, IB has
been building a military armament. The recent haul beats the imagination of
other African leaders and observers.
The batch of 9th April 2024 was quite massive.
The batch includes a large quantity of long range Baretta attack drones and
many guided and unguided munitions from Turkey.
The consignment also includes long range surveillance drones
which are capable of carrying hundreds of tons of arms and ammunition. They are
effective for cross-border surveillance and domestic patrol.
Burkinabe military therefore have the capability to monitor
other African countries undetected.
State of the art Jet fighters and Tanks are also included in
the April batch.
On June 6th, Traore handed over various military
and engineering equipment to the military commanders. Armored combat vehicles
resistant to Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).
Traore claims this massive arsenal is only one out of batches procured.
Nobody knows for sure what this “new kid on the block” in
West Africa is up to.
One thing however, is very germane. If other African leaders
have invested this much in military hardware, Africa will be rid of bandits and
terrorists.
The percentage of their national commonwealth that goes into
providing ostentatious luxury for people in government is more than enough to
secure Africa.
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