The U.S. increases pressure on Burkina Faso through military propaganda, as Africans rise to protect the developing project.
On April 3, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) Commander Michael Langley testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee during an excruciating two hours obsessively devoted to the ill-fated project of preserving US hegemony. Langley’s testimony was all about stopping Russia and China’s advances on the continent. Some Senators expressed concern that Trump had dispensed with the soft power—their term—projected by USAID and worried that China is stepping in to fill the breach.
Alarm bells went off in Africa, the African diaspora, and peace and justice communities all over the world when he turned attention to Burkina Faso and its leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, accusing him of using the gold reserves he nationalized “to protect his junta.”
It would be challenging, of course, to come up with a more arrogant, illogical, and downright idiotic assertion. The head of AFRICOM, a military command openly devoted to securing US interests, with a $2 billion dollar annual budget, accuses an African leader of devoting his own country’s resources to its security?
In a pathetic attempt to give this a bit of humanity or legitimacy, Langley complained that Traoré was using the country’s gold to finance his own security rather than for the benefit of his people, as though there were some universe in which this was a plausible US concern. In the same breath he described North Africa as “NATO’s southern flank.”
Since mid-April a slew of social media posts have reported that the Burkina Faso diaspora, particularly in France, have been protesting and demanding that Captain Traoré step down, accusing him of being a dictator, with some even calling for his arrest. None of these posts are conclusively evidenced, and their scale, sometimes described as "hundreds" or a "small group,” varies across reports. No major news outlets seem to have reported such protests, but real or not, they’re a classic element in the Western regime change playbook.
Human Rights Watch has been playing its usual role as well, reporting that Burkina Faso has cracked down on dissent and that some members of its civilian militia, Volunteers in Defense of the Homeland (VDH), have killed members of the Fulani ethnic minority. It seems likely that there is some incidence of VDH violence against the Fulani, but this is an internal problem for the Burkinabe people and their government, not cause for the “humanitarian intervention” that’s usually on the US/EU/NATO drawing board before these reports are published. Watch out for the emergence of the word "genocide.”
Volunteers in Defense of the Homeland are civilian self-defense militia organized to defend communities against the jihadist violence unleashed by the US/EU/NATO destruction of Libya. In response to Ibrahim Traoré’s mobilization call, the numbers of volunteers increased to 90,000, well beyond the goal of 50,000, according to ACLED.
These are Western playbook moves for overthrowing any government that actually tries to do something for its people in the Global South.
Traoré’s Crimes, in the Eyes of the West
What are Traoré’s crimes in the eyes of the West? As Langley alleged, he nationalized much of the country’s gold reserves. Imagine that. In November 2023, he approved the construction of Burkina Faso’s first refinery to process gold domestically, halting the export of unrefined gold to Europe and advancing the industrialization and skills development needed to create a prosperous domestic economy and lift the Burkinabe people out of the imperialist extractive economy trap.
He suspended export permits for small-scale private gold production to combat illicit trade, such as smuggling, and to regulate the artisanal gold sector.
He renegotiated mining contracts with foreign corporations, demanding greater percentages of ore extracted and favoring local participation, again developing skills needed for a complex, prosperous domestic economy.
He prioritized local processing in other sectors, such as agriculture and cotton. He established two tomato-processing plants and a second cotton processing plant, alongside the National Support Center for Artisanal Cotton Processing, to enhance local value addition and further reduce reliance on exporting raw materials.
In a broader push for economic autonomy, he invested in agriculture to achieve food self-sufficiency, providing farmers with modern machinery and improved seeds, leading to a 2024 harvest of nearly six million tons of cereal.
He expelled French military forces from Burkina Faso. In January 2023, he announced the termination of a 2018 defense agreement with France, giving French forces one month to leave. This followed public protests in Ouagadougou demanding their departure. They’d been stationed in the country for over a decade to combat jihadist insurgencies, which had only gotten worse. By February 2023, French forces had withdrawn, marking the end of their failed Operation Sabre.
He established military sovereignty and diversification of military partnerships, including partnerships with Russia.
Upon assuming the presidency, he announced that he would continue to live on his army captain’s salary.
He appealed to the Pan-Africanist ideals of Burkina’s revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, who served as its president from 1983 to 1987 before being assassinated in a French-backed coup d’état. He erected a new statue of Sankara on the site where he was assassinated,
Africa, the African Diaspora, and Peace and Justice Communities Rise in Response to Langley’s Threat to Traoré
On April 22, Burkina Faso's Security Minister Mahamadou Sana told press that security forces had foiled a "major plot" to assassinate Captain Ibrahim Traoré, with the army alleging the plotters were based in neighboring Ivory Coast. He said they had aimed to "sow total chaos and place the country under the supervision of an international organisation." This is one of many coup plots reported since Traoré assumed the presidency, and heavy security has been instituted around him.
AFRICOM’s annual Operation Flintlock is underway now, until May 14. This year it’s based in Burkina Faso’s Ivory Coast, the alleged site of the foiled coup plot, whose president, Alassane Ouattara, could not be a more dedicated US/EU/NATO collaborator.
Commander Michael Langley arrived for its outset on April 24-25.
When Commander Michael Langley identified Captain Traoré as an enemy of US interests to the Senate Armed Services Committee, alarm bells went off in Africa, the African diaspora, and peace and justice communities worldwide. There have since been cries that there must never be another Libya all over social media, including countless YouTube channels. A global rally in support of Captain Traoré and Burkina Faso was called for April 30 , the date of this publication. News and video will no doubt be available across the Web.
Long live revolutionary Burkina Faso and its Captain Ibrahim Traoré!
Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at [email protected]. You can help support her work on Patreon.
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