The Ibrahim Traoré Many Never Knew

By Idris Muhammed Abdullahi

When Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in Burkina Faso in 2022, many across Africa and the global south cheered. A young soldier, bold and defiant, draped in military fatigues, was hailed as a second coming of Thomas Sankara. But behind the revolutionary façade lies a bitter truth that too many either ignore or are silenced for trying to expose.

The reality is that Traoré has become a dictator, ruling through fear, threats, and manipulation. Ministers within his own cabinet have tried to resign after witnessing the regime’s brutality and corruption, but resigning under Traoré’s government can be a death sentence. Multiple sources confirm that senior officials have been threatened with execution if they leave or speak out. Some have already disappeared without a trace.

Dissent is no longer tolerated. From civil society activists to union leaders, people are vanishing abducted under the cover of night, leaving their families and colleagues terrified and silent. Among the disappeared is a prominent labor leader who had planned to expose exploitative conditions and wage theft by the regime. He has not been seen since.

Meanwhile, Traoré has invested heavily in propaganda , millions diverted into media campaigns, social media manipulation, and staged public events designed to manufacture support and suppress dissent. Government-controlled influencers flood platforms with choreographed praise, while opposition voices are shadow-banned or outright removed. The narrative has been hijacked.

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Traoré’s image is meticulously curated online. Doctored videos portray him as an articulate, visionary leader speaking to the international community , often in English, a language he does not speak. These staged performances are crafted to deceive foreign observers and rally uninformed supporters across Africa who view him as a defiant anti-imperialist. But they are lies , produced with state resources while the country sinks deeper into crisis.

On the ground, there’s little to show for his grand rhetoric. Infrastructure is decaying, insecurity is rampant, and citizens continue to suffer. What Burkina Faso needed was governance; what it got was spectacle.

In one of his most brazen power grabs, Traoré summoned 350 hand-picked individuals into a closed-door assembly and rewrote the nation’s constitution without the input of the public. There was no referendum, no democratic process, just a decree dressed up as reform. The constitution, once a symbol of national unity, is now a tool for authoritarian control.

His family members are quietly taking over every corner of government. His uncle, once embedded in the Ministry of Defence, is now the ambassador to the United States, a strategic appointment to ensure loyalty and control over foreign narratives. These are not appointments of competence, but of blood and allegiance.

International actors who have attempted to raise concern are quickly vilified. When General Michael Langley of AFRICOM expressed concern about the state of affairs, Traoré’s propaganda machine mobilized across francophone Africa, accusing him of neocolonial interference. Misinformation flooded the internet. Those who wanted to help were cast as enemies of African sovereignty.

But make no mistake, this is not Pan-Africanism. This is a dictatorship cloaked in Pan-African language. It is a regime held together by fear, lies, and surveillance. Traoré has not liberated Burkina Faso; he has shackled it in a new, more deceptive form of tyranny.

Many may perceive this writeup or me, the author as being backed by foreign interests, perhaps western sponsored, perhaps anti-African. But I assure you: my loyalty is to the truth and to the people of Burkina Faso. And though I may be vilified today, history will vindicate me.

This is not the path of Sankara. This is the betrayal of everything Sankara stood for.

Burkina Faso and Africa deserve the truth, not carefully produced fiction. The silence of the disappeared cries louder than any speech. The question is: how long will we keep ignoring it?

Idris Muhammed Abdullahi is a public affairs analyst and advocate for fiscal justice in governance from Kano.