# Ibrahim Traoré **Ibrahim Traoré** (born 1988) is the army captain who has ruled [[Burkina Faso]] since ousting a fellow officer in a coup on September 30, 2022. A geology graduate who served with the UN mission in [[Mali]], he has built a Thomas Sankara-style pan-Africanist persona — amplified by waves of AI-generated videos and deepfakes circulating since 2025, some pushing pro-Russian narratives — while expelling French forces, bringing in Russian troops, and extending his rule by five years in May 2024. He dissolved all political parties on January 29, 2026 and told state television in April 2026 that democracy is "not for us." He has held the rotating presidency of the [[Alliance of Sahel States]] since December 2025 and visited the Kremlin in May 2025. ## See Also - [[Burkina Faso]] · [[Alliance of Sahel States]] · [[Africa Corps]] · [[Assimi Goïta]] · [[Abdourahamane Tiani]]