People of Burkina Faso should forget about democracy, says military ruler | Burkina Faso
People in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy because it is “not for us,” military chief Ibrahim Traoré told the country’s state broadcaster.
Traoré came to power in a coup in September 2022, overthrowing another junta that had seized power just nine months earlier. It has since cracked down on dissent and banned political parties altogether in January.
The transition to democracy was initially planned for 2024, but that year the junta extended Traoré’s rule until 2029.
“We are not even talking about elections, first of all… People need to forget the question of democracy… We must tell the truth, democracy is not for us,” Traoré said. report on Thursday with state broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB).
Saying that democracy is “wrong”, the 37-year-old added: “Democracy, we kill children. Democracy, we throw bombs, we kill women, we destroy hospitals, we kill the civilian population. Is this democracy?”
Traoré won fans across Africa for his anti-French and anti-Western rhetoric, which often evoked the legacy of revolutionary Burkinabé leader Thomas Sankara. Sankara, a Marxist, was president of Burkina Faso, which he renamed Upper Volta, from 1983 until his assassination in 1987.
But Traoré has failed to stop the jihadist insurgency, which has claimed thousands of lives since 2014. 2.1 million people were displaced They made up about 9% of the population when official data was last published three years ago.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said more than 1,800 civilians have been killed since 2023 by the army, allied militias and the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM). report It was published on Thursday.
The group accused all parties of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes. He alleged that the junta and allied militias were carrying out ethnic cleansing of Fulani civilians, whom he accused of supporting JNIM, carrying out targeted killings and forcibly displacing communities.
In April 2024, HRW accused the military of executing 223 civilians in one day two months earlier. The government denied this and banned the group, as well as many international media outlets, including the Guardian.
