Les Burkinabè doivent « oublier » la démocratie, affirme le chef de la junte
Burkinabe people must "forget" democracy, said Captain Ibrahim Traoré, head of the ruling junta in the country, during an interview with the press broadcast on national television on Thursday evening.
Mr. Traoré came to power in September 2022 through a coup d'état, the second in eight months.
The political transition, which began after the first coup in January 2022, was supposed to end in July 2024 with elections.
But the current junta has adopted a charter that allows it to remain in power for five more years from July 2024, and authorizes Captain Traoré to run in the "presidential, legislative and municipal elections", scheduled in principle at the end of these five years.
The military regime dissolved the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) in October 2025, and then, last February, the political parties, whose activities were already suspended.
"We're not even talking about elections first (...) people need to forget about democracy, democracy is not for us," Captain Ibrahim Traoré said Thursday during an interview broadcast on Burkina Faso's state radio and television (RTB).
"We are not in a democracy," he had already admitted last year.
Mr. Traoré was interviewed for more than two hours by journalists from Burkinabe and foreign media, including the Italian public television Rai and the British private channel Sky News - a rare occurrence.
Since coming to power, the military regime, hostile to Western countries and especially to France, has banned or suspended the broadcasting of many international media outlets and expelled some of their journalists.
On Thursday, Ibrahim Traoré also mentioned the case of his predecessor, former Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who came to power through the coup of January 2022.
Mr. Damiba is accused of masterminding several coup attempts and is being prosecuted for corruption. He was recently extradited to Ouagadougou by Togo at Burkina Faso's request.
"A judge has already seen him (...) he is in the hands of justice," said Mr. Traoré.
Burkina Faso has been plagued for almost 10 years by violence from jihadist groups that have caused thousands of deaths.
The Burkinabe army and its auxiliaries, the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP), are accused by NGOs of killing civilians, which Ibrahim Traoré denied on Thursday, stating that "there is no evidence".
The head of the junta also indicated that Russia, its ally, was supplying equipment but that "no one is training the Burkinabe army," and "on the ground, it is the Burkinabe soldiers who are fighting . "
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