Burkina Faso’s military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré has publicly rejected democracy as a system of governance, telling journalists it “kills” and that his country has no interest in it, in a wide-ranging interview aired on state television on Thursday, April 3.
“People need to forget about the issue of democracy,” Traoré said. “We have to tell the truth: democracy isn’t for us.” The remarks represent the most direct repudiation yet of democratic governance by the 38-year-old leader, who seized power in a coup in September 2022.
Traoré pointed to Libya as a warning, arguing that outside efforts to impose democracy there had produced only chaos and bloodshed. He insisted Burkina Faso was pursuing its own alternative approach, though he declined to outline a specific institutional framework.
The junta said it is instead focused on “conquest, refoundation and revolution,” marking a sharp departure from the transitional rhetoric Traoré used when he first took power.
The statements came three months after his government took a decisive step against multiparty politics. In January, the military government dissolved all political parties and seized their assets. Before the coup, the country had more than 100 registered political parties, with 15 represented in parliament after the 2020 general election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was dissolved in July 2025, after the government described the agency as too expensive. Journalists, political opposition leaders and prosecutors critical of the military government have also been forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines in recent months.
Violence across the country has worsened significantly during Traoré’s tenure. Fatalities tripled in the three years since he took power, reaching 17,775 by last May, compared to 6,630 recorded deaths in the three years prior, according to analysis by the United States-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on the same day as the interview found that government forces and allied militias were responsible for the majority of civilian deaths.
Traoré has gained a substantial following across the continent by positioning himself as a pan-Africanist standing up to Western imperialism, though analysts and rights groups have raised serious concerns about the consolidation of authoritarian control under his rule.
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have all exited the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), and all three have turned to Russia for military assistance, but violence in the region has continued unabated.
Analysts say the interview signals Traoré has no intention of returning the country to civilian governance in the near future. University of Florida professor Leonardo Villalón, who specialises in the Sahel region, said Traoré “feels he can abandon the pretense” of democratic transition, noting he has both domestic strength and international cover to do so.
