By Adama Traoré
Reports of several foiled coup attempts against the Captain Ibrahim Traoré-led military junta in Burkina Faso, eight in 12 months, reveal how volatile the current political situation in the country is, fuelled by a complex but subtle interplay of internal and external forces.
In a previous incident, a former Chief of Staff of the country’s Gendarmerie Nationale, Lieutenant-Colonel Evrard Somda, was reported to have been arrested in January, accused of plotting the assassination of Capt. Traore and of Commander Yabré, the new intelligence officer who was recently promoted after he oversaw the arrest of four French citizens accused of spying.
Political commentators in the country say these attempts to topple the military leadership are expected. They fit into a pattern of African states making the dangerous and difficult journey towards decolonisation and being resisted by foreign interests.
They believe public support is vital, especially in an environment where such revolutionary ideas have been thwarted by moles within the same military establishment in the past.
“The greatest opposition you’ll face when trying to emancipate your people is from your very own people”, a Traoré supporter says.
“The danger we face is not from the imperialists directly. It’s from our brothers who benefitted from the crimes, theft of resources, handouts such as aid, loans and grants from western based financial institutions and also corporations that benefited from resources from the Sahel”, he bemoans.
Some political analysts say the regime’s continued existence faces a real threat as it struggles under the pressure of consistent coup attempts; however, there are many who feel that the dynamics have changed with the rise of a large segment of the population as the self-proclaimed vanguard of a growing public support base for the junta.
Unsubstantiated reports of an attempted coup d’état against the military leadership in December 2023 saw this support whip up massive opposition among the population. Crowds thronged the popular United Nations roundabout in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou, later nicknamed “Ibrahim Traoré roundabout”, warning all opponents to steer clear of any attempts at sedition.
Immediately the news of the coup attempt filtered into the streets, people in Ouagadougou came out in large numbers, just as they did during the coup attempt on September 26th, 2023, when thousands of pro-military government demonstrators took to the streets of the city and other towns to show their support for the country’s military rulers following a call from Traore supporters to “defend” him as rumours of a mutiny circulated on social media.
For months now, the Ibrahim Traore roundabout has become a rallying ground for supporters of Capt. Traoré. Many of them chose to remain after September 26, setting themselves up as the elite group of an ersatz people’s army defending the regime, invoking memories of the same public support the military enjoyed during the Sankara years.
A source who spoke to West Africa Report said these gatherings have become routine because of so many reports of plots against the government. They go a step further, some times, acting on tip-offs to seek out and intimidate opponents of the government.
For some, who choose to remain anonymous, they say the actions of these groups are gradually looking like purges that are instigated against critics of the government and may create an atmosphere of fear in the country.
For example, following the failed September coup, calls to defend the regime quickly turned into a hunt for opponents of the regime. Thousands of people took to the streets of Ouagadougou, and Bobo Dioulassou, the country’s second largest city, attacking anyone who appeared suspicious, including a military officer who was suspected of being one of the plotters.
Members of the groups say their goal is to monitor every suspicious movement or activity in the city, in order to prevent a coup attempt against the junta. They say it is thanks to their efforts that the attempted coups d’état on September 26th and December 30th, 2023 were all foiled.
Traoré’s supporters admit that there are growing voices in the country that are against their citizen vigil. They say, however, that such voices are “the damn politicians, the plotters and enemies from within.”
One fervent supporter, who boldly proclaims his admiration for what he describes as Traoré’s unpretentiousness, asks, “why are they against people who spend the heat, rain and cold of the nights out there just to ensure that imperialists don’t take down our Captain? Why?
The citizen’s vigil has become an influential and feared vigilante group whose self-imposed responsibilities to the Fatherland keep expanding by the day. A name has been coined for them that captures the spontaneity of their movement; the ‘Wagyignan’ or ‘Wayiyan’, a word derived from the Mooré (Mossi) language spoken by a part of the population, which literally means “Come out”.
The group appears to operate on similar principles as the Chinese Red Guards- a student’s body in the 50s communist China, but without the uniform and a book of quotes. The Red Guards war on the ‘Four Olds’ of Chinese society (i.e., old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas) does not seem far removed from the notion of the “Wayiyans” who say they stand against the old political guards and a political structure that served western-imperialist whims.
They say, like Sankara, the appearance of Traoré on Burkina Faso’s political landscape offers a glimmer of hope in the midst of serious adversities. Unlike the Sankara years, they would not be caught off-guard and lose a leader who is genuinely working towards their political and economic emancipation.
Traoré’s leadership style has quickly set him apart as an audacious figure on West Africa’s political stage and he has also reshaped the country’s stance on global politics by strategically aligning with allies outside of the traditional Western sphere, sending a strong signal that Burkina Faso is ready to form alliances based on its own interests and values.
This pivot clearly raises eyebrows among western powers but has inspired huge support among Burkinabès who see these steps as both liberating and expressive of the desires for a new leadership paradigm.
Acts like slashing healthcare costs, alleviating the financial burden on a population that has long struggled to access affordable healthcare, and signing a new decree enabling Citizens to report cases of corruption directly to him anonymously have won him widespread support.
Through his public speeches, Traore has infused the debate about Africa’s current fringe position in global politics with a new awareness among his people about the complex geopolitical issues the continent, particularly the countries in the Sahel, are dealing with.
For his supporters and advocates of this popular Sahel renaissance, Traoré and his military colleagues in the Sahel, and their populations, serve as a template fit for adoption by all oppressed nations of Africa.
Many others see it differently, though. A writer who considers Traoré’s methods inflexible claims that Traoré “no longer hides anything of his irresistible desire for an indefinite presidency. A project already chanted in the circles of supporters who urge him to preside ‘forever’ over the destiny of the nation.”
Traoré’s critics, like the writer, say his intention is obviously to entrench himself in power by instilling fear in the minds of opponents. They point to the despotic tone his objectives have assumed, like his promise to “make the Burkinabè army a power to be feared.”
One critic says Traoré “writes his own legend”, scoffing at the captain’s belief that “he alone is the solution to all the ills of Burkinabè” and that he creates a reality that is almost impossible to achieve, threatening the lives of his fellow citizens when they offer alternative views.
In a tense atmosphere shaped by constant fears of deep-seated plots to topple him, Traoré has employed some security strategies that appear Kafkaesque. He once said publicly that “individual freedoms do not take precedence over those of the nation”, while explaining that his government would not be open to criticisms that are mere personal opinions and not based on facts. He describes these critics as “dissidents” and the power of the military against them as “Lethal weapon”.
His supporters expectedly agree with this position. A new edict signed instructing that critics of the military’s approach in the war against Jihadist insurgents be kitted and deployed to the battlefield was greeted with praise by them.
Two victims of this edict are a lawyer, Guy Hervé Kam, and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ablassé Ouédraogo. The septuagenarian minister recently appeared in a photo taken somewhere in the interior of the country dressed in military fatigues and carrying a Kalashnikov next to a member of the “Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland” (VDP), assigned to the fight against Armed Terrorist Groups (GAT).
The Traoré-led junta has undoubtedly imposed strict rules that many critics say has moved the country far from its democratic traditions and this has created enemies for the government, keeping it alert to the realities of possible attempts to topple it, both from local and external forces.
Nevertheless, the growing support base it has amassed over the years clearly represents a buffer against its foes but also a threat to many who do not align with its approach to governance.
The question many ask is whether the Traoré-led military leadership can survive such a barrage of coups against it, and if it does survive, how much threat does the rise in public support pose to opponents of the regime in the country.
