Burkina Faso Leader Vows to Crush Rivals as Power Struggle Rumours Swirl

Ibrahim Traore, the head of Burkina Faso, has issued a stark warning to anyone seeking to challenge his authority, declaring that he will not tolerate rivals as speculation of a power struggle at the highest levels of government continues to grow.

Speaking to community leaders in Ouahigouya in northern Burkina Faso on Thursday, the 38-year-old captain made clear his intention to remain the country’s sole leader. “There can’t be two captains on one ship,” Traore said. “Everyone who works with me knows how I operate. If anyone screws up, I’ll take you down without a second thought. There are no strongmen around me.”

The warning comes amid mounting rumours of infighting within the military government, which seized power in a coup in September 2022. The speculation centres on the prolonged absence of two of the junta’s most powerful figures: Oumarou Yabre, the head of intelligence and the National Security Council who is considered Burkina’s second-in-command, and Farouk Azaria Sorgho, the junta spokesman and commander of a Rapid Intervention Battalion.

Yabre has not been seen in public since late May. Security officials have told AFP that he has stopped going to his office at the National Intelligence Agency and that his security detail has been substantially reduced. He also failed to appear at the traditional flag-raising ceremony at the presidency and a recent ceremony promoting three senior officers to general.

Several close associates of Yabre have been abducted or arrested, including Islamic preacher Ishaq Kindo, who had criticised a bill regulating religious freedoms. Traore publicly denounced Kindo on Thursday, calling him “fundamentally bad” and accusing him of creating an “Islamic police force” in 2019. Two officials close to Yabre were removed from their posts by presidential decree on June 17, including the CEO of the National Hydrocarbons Company and a ministerial advisor for youth affairs.

Sorgho, the regime’s high-profile third-in-command and spokesman for KORAG, a body tasked with implementing the junta’s strategic vision, has also not appeared publicly since mid-May. Security officials have alleged that Sorgho has been “abducted” by Traore associates. Since mid-May, his battalion has been run by his deputy. His father, Adama Luc Sorgho, who served as infrastructure minister until last year, was also arrested and then “abducted” by armed men, according to his entourage.

Security operations have intensified in the capital Ouagadougou over the past two months. Roads that had been closed for years have been reopened so traffic can be rerouted away from the presidential palace, where additional security checkpoints have been set up.

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