Ibrahim Traoré

Biography

Ibrahim Traoré was born in 1988 in Kéra, near Bondokuy in western Burkina Faso. After secondary school in Bobo-Dioulasso he studied geology at the University of Ouagadougou from 2006, where he was active in Muslim and Marxist student associations, and graduated with honours in 2009.

He joined the army in 2009, graduated from the Georges Namoano Military Academy, trained in anti-aircraft warfare in Morocco and served with an infantry unit in Kaya. Promoted lieutenant in 2014, he served with the UN mission in Mali, where he was commended during rebel attacks in 2018, then fought in counter-insurgency operations in northern Burkina Faso and became a captain in 2020.

He supported the January 2022 coup that brought Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba's junta to power and from March 2022 commanded an artillery regiment in Kaya. On 30 September 2022 he led a coup against Damiba, became head of the ruling Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration and on 6 October interim president, at 34 the world's youngest head of state at the time.

In power he has broken with France and ECOWAS, expelled French troops, turned toward Russia, Turkey and China and, with Mali and Niger, formed the Alliance of Sahel States, whose presidency he took in December 2025. He shelved the promised 2024 return to civilian rule, had his mandate extended by five years, survived several coup attempts, brought gold mines under state control and in 2026 dissolved all political parties, while critics and journalists have been detained or forcibly conscripted.