Captain Ibrahim Traoré ended the reign of Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba in a coup on Friday, September 30. On Wednesday, October 5, Captain Traoré was officially appointed head of state and armed forces, five days after his successful putsch. The announcement was made to the Burkinabe in an official statement read on national television.
Since this Wednesday, October 5, 2022, Burkina Faso has a new president. It is the young captain of 34 years, Ibrahim Traore. His appointment was confirmed through an official statement read on national television (RTBF).
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“The President of the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR) is the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the National Armed Forces. He is the guarantor of the independence of the judiciary. If the president is unable to act, his powers are exercised by the first vice-president and, if necessary, by the second vice-president,” said MPSR spokesman Captain Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho.
Leading a group of disgruntled junior officers, Captain Traoré overthrew Lieutenant Colonel Damiba, who himself had come to power in January after a coup against President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.
Lieutenant Colonel Damiba eventually fled to Togo following the two-day confrontation that was defused by religious and community leaders.
Captain Traoré, very experienced for his young age
Captain Ibrahim Traoré is a native of Bondokuy, in the western region of Burkina Faso. He studied geology in Ouagadougou and joined the army in 2010. He is a graduate of the Georges Namonao Military Academy, an officer training school less glorious than the Prytanée Militaire de Kadiogo (PMK) from which his predecessor Damiba and many of Burkina Faso’s top brass came.
At the end of his studies at the Military Academy, Ibrahim Traoré became vice-major of the class named “Citizenship”. This was followed by a ten-year career on the front lines where he was deployed in the north and center of the country hit by jihadist attacks, and then in Mali in 2018 with the UN mission, the Minusma. He was named captain in 2020.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré, 34, now holds the record for the world’s youngest president ahead of Chile’s Gabriel Boric, 36.
