Understanding the popularity of Burkina Faso’s leader Capt. Ibrahim Traore

Maintaining a strategic separation of armed forces from civilian spaces is essential to democracies. Unfortunately, for one reason or another democracy has not always worked in Africa, or civilian leadership have not always made it work, leading to public dissatisfaction and acceptance of military takeovers of government. Military juntas have seen a recent resurgence, often gaining popularity from the public. While popularity of military juntas tends to wane with time, Capt. Traore’s has surged. Why is that? 

Reasons for the military takeover

Traoré seized power in September 2022, a second coup in the country that year, amid escalating jihadist violence and mounting public outrage over the French influence in Burkina Faso. He has embarked on an anti-West rhetoric, severed ties with former colonial ruler France, pivoted towards Russia and vowed to restore sovereignty and security.

Anti-West rhetoric

Decolonising Burkina Faso is Traore’s rallying point; the self-reliance and independence from the West messaging often resonates with young Africans and diasporans. He was instrumental in founding the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) an international coordination platform involving Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, along with numerous international partners. 

Explaining Traore’s popularity

Underdevelopment, failures by civilian leadership and the perception that the West is largely to blame for the situation has created valuable space for the charismatic, media savvy Traore. To many, especially the youth, his anti-imperialist stance evokes memories of African greats like Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, among others.

Democracy has failed to deliver for the average African; the youth have seen the moral bankruptcy of capitalism, flailing economies and absence of opportunities to actualise their dreams. In a country with a young population, current median age is 17.7 years, at 37 years, Traore appeals to the youth who believe he understands their challenges. He speaks to their guts when he confronts the irrelevance of the old guard and regional institutions such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). His popularity is a reaction to the inability of the Western-style political and economic institutions to understand the African society’s complexity or capture and prioritise important local issues.

Traore gets it, alongside Niger and Mali, Burkina Faso, he has severed ties with ECOWAS, an elitists institution seen by many young Africans as representing the interests of the leadership, not citizens.

In challenging the status quo, Traore has become the face for youth consciousness; many young people have strong objections to current African leadership and its ties with Western imperialist governments who they accuse of appropriating the continent’s natural resources.

These frustrated, insecure young people searching for sources of comfort and clarity look up to strong personalities to be the spokespersons of their anxieties hence the latest trend of tolerance for military rule in Africa, especially among the youth. Traore fits the bill, he is that voice diametrically opposed to the status quo and Western systems.

Surveys conducted by Afrobarometer, cited by Aikins (2025), indicate that almost two-thirds of Burkinabé believe the army should intervene when leaders abuse their power. Likewise, 66% accept military rule, up from 24% in 2012. The fact that the survey was conducted at a time when the country was under military rule portrays a general acceptance of the regime.

Traore’s performance as Burkina Faso’s leader

In his inaugural speech, Traore identified crises in security, defence, healthcare, social welfare and infrastructure as major issues requiring immediate remediation. He vowed to combat terrorism and adhere to the transition timetable agreed with ECOWAS, which aimed to restore democratic rule by 1 July 2024.

However, the withdrawal of his country from ECOWAS to form the AES with allied military juntas of Mali and Niger has meant a review of the transition plan giving him until at least 2029 in his current position.

Traoré has since instituted radical reforms that resonate with many Burkinabé. These include reversing his predecessor’s salary increase for government officials while he remains on his military captain earnings. 

Other popular undertakings include significant investment in agriculture, setting up a National Support Centre for Artisanal Cotton Processing, construction of a new airport, nationalisation of the country’s mineral resources with two gold mines forced to halt exports of unrefined gold to Europe, building a national gold refinery expected to process 150 tonnes annually and setting up a state-owned mining company and instituting legislation that requires foreign entities to give 15% stake in their local operations and transfer skills to locals.

There is recognition of economic progress under his leadership by major international organisations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the economy to remain robust in 2025 and identified that the regime had made commendable progress in raising domestic revenue, containing the public wage bill and increasing spending on education, health and social protection.

While the World Bank highlighted a surge in inflation from 0.7% in 2023 to 4.2% in 2024, it noted that the extreme poverty rate (people living on less than $2.15 per day) had fallen to 24.9%, a nearly 2% drop due to robust growth in the agricultural and service sectors.

However, Traore’s attempts at stabilising security are, to date, faltering; insecurity has worsened, threatening the country’s overall economic development and limiting broader economic benefits from mineral wealth for most citizens.

Data from the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project or ACLED shows a sharp rise in civilian deaths attributed to both the armed forces and jihadists involved in the conflict rose from 2,894 people per annum before the 2022 coup to at least 7,200 in 2024.

Analysts argue that the situation has deteriorated to a point where Ouagadougou is at real risk with more than 60% of the country outside of government control. The escalation in violence has left at least 2.1 million people homeless and almost 6.5 million in need of humanitarian aid.

Conclusion

Traore’s popularity draws largely from youth dissatisfaction with democracy and the incompetent local leadership. But care must be taken not to give military juntas a blank cheque to dominate what should essentially be civilian operational spaces. Blaming the West has become an effective selling point that, unfortunately, has often replaced local accountability. Active steps must be taken to bring the average African to the fold, reduce the levels of political illiteracy that define our current political spaces to improve the quality of public engagement. Most of our people are close to total ignorance about civic rights and institutions of governance, and there is a large constituency that is very susceptible to simplistic slogans by charismatic leaders who repeat appealing slogans.