Ibrahim Traoré

Ibrahim Traoré in 2023

Ibrahim Traoré (born 14 March 1988) is a Burkinabé military officer and politician who has served as the interim President of Burkina Faso since 2022. Traoré took control of Burkina Faso in September 2022, ousting interim president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in a coup d'état.

Quotes

• We believe that the terrorism we are witnessing today comes from imperialism, and we are fighting it. If we put an end to this war, if we have a strong army, we will be able to engage in developing our homeland. That is what we see as the purpose of our struggle. This is why it is utterly important to build and train staff.
  • "Meeting with President of Burkina Faso Ibrahim Traore" in Kremlin.ru (10 May 2025)

Speech at the Russia-Africa Summit (2023) (excerpts)

Source: "Interim President Of Burkina Faso Traore Speaking At Russia-Africa Summit: Russia Is Part Of The Family For Africa" MEMRI (2023)

• I would also like to apologize to the elders. Please, forgive me if I have wronged you in any way. My generation is asking many questions without getting any answers, but we feel at home, in our family here.
• The role of Africa and Russia in combating Nazism has been mostly forgotten. We have come together today because we need to talk about our countries’ future. What will happen tomorrow in this new, free world which we are striving for, a world without interference in our internal affairs? We have the same prospects.
• I cannot understand why Africa, with its huge mineral resources, water and sun, is the poorest continent where hunger abounds, and why we have to ask for help. We ask these questions, but we are not getting any answers.
• As for Burkina Faso, for the past eight years we have been fighting the most barbaric and cruel form of colonialism and imperialism, which are forcing a modern form of slavery on us. We have learned one thing very well: a slave who cannot protest deserves nothing more than pity, and his future is miserable. We did not wait for anybody to take care of us. We decided to fight the terrorists who are preventing our development.
• In this struggle, our courageous people decided to take up arms against terrorism. We were surprised to learn that imperialists refer to them as armed groups or militarized groups, while calling people in Europe who take up arms to defend their homeland patriots. Our forefathers were deported to save Europe, and this happened against their will. But when they came back and tried to assert their basic rights, they faced cruel repression.
• The problem is not when people decide to take up arms. The problem is that the leaders of African countries do not bring anything to people fighting imperialism, calling us armed groups or criminals. We do not agree with this approach. We, the heads of African states, must stop acting as puppets ready to act whenever the imperialists pull the strings.
• I am almost out of time, but I would like to say that we must pay tribute to our nations who fight and struggle. Glory to our nations! Dignity and respect for our nations! Victory to our nations! Thank you, comrades. Homeland or death!

Misattributed

• "Your Holiness, we Africans know the power of the cross. We know the hymns, the prayers, the litanies. We have built churches with calloused hands and defended our faith with our blood."

• "But we also know another truth, one that too many preferred to bury, that the church at times walked beside colonizers, that while missionaries prayed for our souls, soldiers littered our lands, that while you predecessors spoke of heaven, our ancestors were chained on earth."

• "Will you be the Pope who sees Africa not as a periphery, but as the prophetic center? Will you be the Pope who does not only visit slums for photo opportunities, but who dares to speak with rage against the forces that make those slums permanent?"
• "I lead a nation that was tossed aside by the world until we refused to be silent. We were told we were too poor to be independent, too weak to be sovereign, too unstable to resist. But I tell you this with the thunder of ancestors in my voice. We are done asking for permission to exist."

• "Your Holiness, I speak now only for Burkina Faso, but for a continent too long patronized. Africa is not a continent of pity, we are a continent of prophets. Prophets who were jailed, exiled and murdered for daring to challenge the empire."
• "What we need is a Pope who will name the modern-day Herod who will thunder against economic empires just as boldly as the Church once thundered against communism."

• "Even when it comes dressed in a tailored suit, carrying diplomatic credentials and smiling through its sins, Your Holiness the world stands at a precipice and Africa this battered and beautiful continent is not merely watching from below we are climbing. We are bleeding, we are rising, and we are daring to ask questions that echo louder than canon law. Where was the church when our presidents were overthrown by foreign-backed mercenaries? Where was the church when our youth were abducted and indoctrinated into wars funded by nations that pretend to be peacekeepers. Where was the church when our currencies collapsed? When the IMF choked our economies? When our leaders were punished for choosing sovereignty over submission? Do not tell us to forgive while the whip is still in the hand of the abuser."

• "We are a people of the crossroads of prophecy and politics, and Africa’s time is no longer coming. It is here. We are rewriting the narrative, reshaping the future, reclaiming the dignity denied to us by centuries of foreign domination and spiritual manipulation. And the church must decide where it stands, with the powers that be here, with the people who bleed. I do not write this letter to condemn. I write it to invite you, Your Holiness, into a deeper solidarity, to a solidarity that walks barefoot with the poor, that dares to speak truth in Rome as boldly as it does in Rwanda, that names the Saints not just by miracles, but by their commitment to justice. We await your voices, not from balconies, but from trenches and from favelas. From refugee camps, from behind the bars of political prisons where truth is incarcerated."

• • attributed as alleged letter to Pope Leo XIV source. According to numerous factcheckers, there is no evidence that Traoré wrote such letter to the Pope. It is false that Ibrahim Traoré sent a letter to Pope Leo XIV and received a response

Quotes about Ibrahim Traoré

• A charismatic 37-year-old, Burkina Faso's military ruler Capt Ibrahim Traoré has skilfully built the persona of a pan-Africanist leader determined to free his nation from what he regards as the clutches of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism.[..] Traoré's popularity comes despite the fact that he has failed to fulfil his pledge to quell a 10-year Islamist insurgency that has fuelled ethnic divisions and has now spread to once-peaceful neighbours like Benin.
  • Farouk Chothia, "Why Burkina Faso's junta leader has captured hearts and minds around the world" in BBC (12 May 2025)

• Despite the effort to present Traoré as a bold reformer and saviour, the political, security and economic ramifications from his junta rule will reverberate through Burkina Faso for decades to come.
  • Daniel Eizenga, "Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré is making waves in west Africa. Who is he?" in The Conversation (21 February 2025)

• Traoré has rejected financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, insisting the country can develop without the West’s loans and conditionalities. For some, this is a demonstration of Africans handling their own affairs. For the youth, Traoré’s regime is a chance to show what young people can achieve. But for most ordinary Burkinabé, the priority is simply improving their daily living conditions. At a time of increasing global uncertainty and a decline in international aid, Africa must strive for self-reliance and control of its resources. Like many African countries, Burkina Faso is blessed with natural resources that, if properly managed, could transform citizens’ lives.
  • Enoch Randy Aikins, "In Burkina Faso, Traoré’s legacy could extend beyond popularity and promises" in Insititute for Research Studies(24 April 2025)