Burkina Faso media overflows these days with the amazing achievements of junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré: the country has repaid its foreign debt, built new low-cost housing, and he discovered a new source of oil.
The reality is quite different. Burkina Faso’s foreign debt still exists and sits at $5.6 billion or 21.5% of the country’s gross domestic product. Online videos showing low-cost housing under construction are actually from Algeria. And the “oil” coming out of the ground is actually footage of a broken sewer pipe in the state of Minnesota in the United States.
In short, the day-to-day reality of Traoré’s three-year-long rule over Burkina Faso is dramatically at odds with the claims made in Burkinabe and pro-junta media, some of it fueled by Russian propaganda.
“The volume and sophistication of these misleading campaigns reflect a broader pattern of foreign-sponsored information interference in Africa,” the Africa Center for Strategic Studies reported in an analysis of false security claims.
Since coming to power in September 2022, Traoré has overseen a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks across the West African country. Violence and civilian deaths increased sharply after Traoré invited Russian mercenaries with the Wagner Group, now the Africa Corps, into the country.
Deaths tied to terrorism in Burkina Faso have almost tripled over the past three years to 17,775. By comparison, Burkina Faso reported 6,630 deaths in the three years before Traoré’s coup, which was carried out in the belief that the military would quickly bring stability to the country.
According to a study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, terrorist violence against civilians has increased by 87% under the junta to at least 2,823 people compared to the period before Traoré’s coup. Violence against civilians by Burkinabe security forces has also increased sharply under the junta.
“Estimates are that Burkinabe military forces continue to lose control of territory and now operate freely in as little as 30% of the country, leaving the remaining 70% contested,” African Center researchers reported. That represents a loss of territory from the 50% held by the government before the junta. The loss of territory has come as terrorists have laid siege to 130 Burkinabe towns and cities and cut off major arteries between the capital, Ouagadougou, and the country’s southern and eastern neighbors of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Togo.
The setbacks have not stopped pro-junta media and Russian propagandists from creating videos and other content singing the praises of the junta and Traoré in particular. The images have flooded social media with millions of views. Many of those images are deepfakes created using AI to show Traoré shaking hands with world leaders and receiving praise from celebrities such as the singer Beyoncé.
Other material is drawn from authentic video but misidentified to benefit the junta. One example, according to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, is video of low-cost housing being built in Algeria that was portrayed as a junta project.
Another video, showing thousands of people staging an anti-corruption march in Serbia, was portrayed as French citizens filling the streets to support Traoré, according to a report by BBC Africa.
“The increase in AI-generated content suggests the trend is not organic,” BBC Africa reported.
Russia’s involvement in polishing the junta’s image with propaganda has included at least 19 separate disinformation campaigns across the Sahel, according to institute researcher Raphael Parens. The Chinese have joined in with campaigns as they seek to build their own influence in the region. Parens wrote that the disinformation campaigns are contributing to the relentless violence that has made the Sahel a global hot spot for terrorism.
“The Traoré regime’s approach to counterterrorism fuels local ethnic conflict and its propaganda arm actively pursues anti-democratic thought, together preventing a healthy society from emerging,” institute researchers wrote. “Burkina Faso offers a terrifying glimpse into a world hurtling into the future while still stuck in the past.”
