Rising African star is Kremlin-backed revolutionary capitalising on anti-West sentiment

Telegraph

18-05-2025

When Capt Ibrahim Traore met Vladimir Putin across a broad Kremlin table last week, many in Russia or indeed Europe may have been unaware who this charismatic young visitor in a red beret and battle dress was.
In swathes of Africa however, with help from Russia, his face and name have recently been unavoidable, particularly on social media.
The youngest leader on the continent after a 2022 coup brought him to power in Burkina Faso, he is seen by many disillusioned youth as a messianic figure following in a line of African revolutionaries.
His message of self-reliance and independence from the West, particularly from France, the former colonial ruler, has resonated with frustrated young people across Africa looking for political saviours.
At the age of 37, Mr Traore is also a far cry from the continental caricature of a doddering octogenarian ruling over a population where the average age is still in the teens.
Some even see him as a reincarnation of Thomas Sankara, the Burkinabe Marxist and pan-Africanist revolutionary who ruled for four years in the 1980s.
Yet analysts and diplomats say while his burgeoning reputation is rooted in genuine disillusion with Africa's leadership and his desire for more equal relations with the West, it is also allegedly being expertly boosted and burnished by a Russian disinformation campaign.
The barrage of propaganda is aimed at building him up as an anti-Western icon and at distracting attention from Burkina Faso's dire security situation, which neither Mr Traore, nor his Russian backers have been able to fix.
His personality cult has in recent weeks been pushed into overdrive by a deluge of social media propaganda, often misleading, portraying him as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country's dignity.
This potent online myth-making has secured his place as a pan-African hero for many who contrast his vigour with the shortcomings of their own leaders.
'The rise of Traore is certainly making a lot of African leaders very uncomfortable,' says Ryan Cummings, a director of Signal Risk.
Mr Traore took power after a 2022 putsch capitalised on popular anger at the failure to deal with a bloody Islamist insurgency.
His junta quickly pivoted to kick out French troops and embrace Russia, alongside Mali and later Niger, creating a belt of pro-Kremlin military governments in the Sahel.
Moscow has agreed to provide mercenaries, arms and expertise, in return for access to the region's natural resources, notably gold.
Among the advantages of being aligned with Russia, is also access to the Kremlin's disinformation expertise, which has seemingly been put at the service of building Mr Traore into an African icon.
Widely shared posts have made misleading claims such as he has paid off the country's sovereign debt, that there are mass marches in the West in support of the Sahelian regimes, that Donald Trump has paid homage to Mr Traore's leadership, or that Burkina Faso has independently developed Africa's first electric cars.
In some of the most audacious propaganda released earlier this month, deepfake AI videos purportedly show stars including Beyonce and Rihanna singing anthems in his honour.
One ballad appears to show the Crazy in Love singer urging God to protect Mr Traore and relating how he 'kicked out the soldiers from the old regime,' and 'told the West we reclaim the dream'.
'The propaganda is utterly overwhelming and, while it's sometimes organic, the vast majority of it is intimately tied to Russia and potentially several of Moscow's Latin American allies,' says Will Brown of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
'The object is pretty clear – it's an anti-Western, anti-democratic agenda which glorifies strong man military leadership among a core base of disaffected youth.
'I think it's also increasingly about spreading anti-Western sentiment and hostile information through African diaspora populations.'
The military ruler has quickly become an icon beyond Burkina Faso's borders, used to chastise other leaders.
Last month, Hilda Dokubo, a Nigerian actress and politician, said: 'Ibrahim Traore is all the proof Nigerians need to know that a country takes the shape of its leadership and that Nigeria is where it is because of the wickedness of her leaders.'
Yet the sheen of Mr Traore's image contrasts with the reality of his junta and the terrible security conditions in the country.
Despite his pledge to tighten security, his forces are estimated to control as little as 35 per cent of the country, with jihadist groups like Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) besieging towns.
Data from the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project show that while 2,894 people were killed by both government and armed groups during the year before the 2022 coup. That number has reached 7,200 in the last year.
His regime is accused of abuses against civilians and cracking down on the media.
Militants launched a string of attacks on May 11 as Mr Traore made his way back from his meeting with Putin.
JNIM, a West African affiliate of al-Qaeda, said it had overrun an army base in the northern town of Djibo. It was impossible to verify claims that 200 soldiers had been killed, but satellite pictures showed widespread damage.
His military weakness may ultimately make him vulnerable to another coup and may be the reason Russia is making so much effort to build up his image.
Mr Cummings said: 'Traore is being propped up because he is the most vulnerable [of the Sahel junta leaders] to being overthrown.'
For all his anti-colonial rhetoric, he may also have traded one domineering partner for another.
He said: 'Preferential treatment that was being given to France is now just being given to Russia.'