In the three years since Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power, his junta has silenced critics by arresting dissidents or press-ganging them into fighting jihadists.
Styling himself on former leader Thomas Sankara, a charismatic icon of African rebellion killed in a coup in 1987, the 37-year-old openly defends his anti-imperialist programme and makes no apology for his Burkina Faso “not being a democracy”.
Burkinabes interviewed by AFP spoke of rising repression under Traore, as the west African nation battles a more than decade-long jihadist insurgency, but all requested anonymity out of fear for the consequences of speaking out.
– Free speech police –
“You can only talk about sport, culture or trivia. As soon as you start talking about politics, everyone falls silent,” said a resident of the capital Ouagadougou.
“Even within families, brothers have become wary of each other.”
According to another local, “since Traore arrived, one ill-placed or out-of-context word will have you marked out as an enemy”.
Committees of civilian informants watch over Ouagadougou’s grand boulevards, ready to report dissidents.
Their presence “shows that everyone spies on and fears everyone else”, a third resident said.
The junta has founded brigades dedicated to cleaning up the streets.
Its officers patrol working-class districts on the lookout for behaviour they class as uncivil or anti-social.
One local said that after running a red light he was arrested, handed a vest and forced “to join a group of about 10 people to pull up weeds and pick up rubbish”.
“It’s all very well to fight against anti-social behaviour, but not by treating people like this, without any regard for the rules or the law,” he said.
“Worst of all, they film you and broadcast it on national television.”
– Patriotic holiday camps –
To promote Traore’s prized “decolonised mindset”, the junta has encouraged Burkinabes aged 10 to 15 to attend patriotic holiday camps, where they receive military training dressed in army fatigues.
Any young citizen hoping to enrol at university must undergo a month-long “patriotic immersion” course, heavy on classes on national identity.
One participant told AFP he hoped that all young Burkinabes will one day have to undergo that “patriotic immersion” too.
“We learnt to overcome our limits and put our country before our insignificant selves,” he said.
A political analyst, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the youth education drive aimed to create a “model militarised citizen” to “annihilate all forms of future protest”.
– Muzzled press, propaganda –
Accused of being in league with “imperialists”, the international media has been run out of town, while local journalists have been forced to exercise ever greater caution.
“Today it’s difficult to interview people on the street. No one wants to risk being sent to the front for talking about trivial matters,” a local journalist said.
“The few people willing to do so praise the government,” he added.
With freedom of speech muzzled, gauging Traore’s true popularity is difficult.
Social media is awash with testaments to the captain’s glory from an online army of pro-junta influencers, some with more than one million followers.
With a reach spanning far beyond Burkina Faso’s borders, the posts mix broadsides against the West with disinformation and AI-generated videos in the service of Traore’s cult of personality.
“He is being painted as the long-awaited hero capable of standing strong against the international conspiracy supposedly seeking to keep the people of Africa downtrodden,” said Fahiraman Rodrigue Kone, head of the Sahel project of the Institute for Security Studies.
– Battlefield failure –
Yet, the captain’s promise of restoring security within months has not matched the reality at the jihadist front line.
The junta insists it has “reconquered” more than 72 percent of the country.
Analysts have cast doubt on the claim, however. Many believe that fighters linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group control vast swathes of the country, though the army has control of the major cities.
The junta no longer issues updates on jihadist attacks, while the army is often accused of also committing atrocities against civilians.
Though Traore was at the front himself, “his analysis did not take into account the depth of the security crisis” at home, argued Kone.
For the analyst, the captain’s “fighting talk also serves as a tool to legitimise his rule”.
As one Burkinabe put it: “In the heartlands, it’s the terrorists who sow terror. In the big cities, it’s the government that terrorises the people.”
The post Burkinabes mute after 3 years under Captain Traore’s boot appeared first on Vanguard News.
