Currently, no African head of state is more popular and beloved than Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Last Wednesday, in Ouagadougou, thousands of Burkinabes poured out into the streets for rallies in support of Traoré, who came into power in September 2022 through the second coup in the country that year.

The rallies followed the announcement of a foiled coup plan and statements by General Michael Langley, commander of U.S. Africa Command, critical of Traoré and his governing style. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in early April, Langley accused Traoré of misusing Burkina Faso’s substantial gold reserves to protect his military regime, rather than benefiting his country’s citizens.

Always spotted in his army fatigues, with a gun at his waist, Traoré is widely valorized as a living revolutionary, an ideal figure in times when Africa’s leadership crisis has only deepened. Since ousting Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, Traoré - who, at just 37, is the world’s youngest head of state - has presented himself as a leader guided by his dedication to transforming Burkina Faso, while taking a stance against neocolonialism.

Similar to Mali and Niger, both junta-ruled allies and co-founding members of the Alliance of Sahel States, Traoré has severed Burkina Faso’s ties with former colonial rulers France, and has publicly denounced Western imperialism. His primary missions are to stabilize the country’s dire security concerns due to Islamist insurgency and improve his country’s economic fortunes, where over 60 percent of the population is multidimensionally poor.

To achieve his goals for economic growth, Traoré’s government has nationalized two gold mines, stopped the exportation of unrefined gold, and started work on a refinery expected to process 150 tonnes of gold annually. In addition to gold, Burkina Faso is rich in minerals, including zinc, manganese, copper, and phosphate, as well as untapped reserves of diamonds and bauxite.

Between his charisma as a self-proclaimed revolutionary, noble intentions, and defiant stance towards Western powers, it’s not surprising that Traoré has attracted the adulation of millions of Africans, despite being an autocratic ruler.

Shortly after Langley’s comments, Traoré bluntly stated that democracy was out of the question in Burkina Faso’s near future as far as he’s concerned. “If we have to say it loud and clear here, we are not in a democracy, we are in a popular, progressive revolution,” he said, adding that freedom of expression in this system is “[how] we end up with a society of disorder.” While these statements, which seem despotic, should drum up loud criticisms, Traoré is immune due to being placed on the revolutionary pedestal.

The zeal behind the support for Traoré is also tied to the many accusations and conspiracies of Western powers antagonizing African and Global South leaders, heralded as revolutionaries. For instance, Traoré has been hailed as the reincarnation of Captain Thomas Sankara, the revered Burkinabe military leader and revolutionary killed in a coup allegedly sponsored by France and the West.

From Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah to DR Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, the role of Western and former colonial powers in removing beloved leaders and potentially destabilizing African countries has made many disillusioned and defensive when it comes to beloved leaders. That’s why criticisms instantly trailed Langley’s comments, especially as they were framed within the context of U.S. interests in West Africa and junta-ruled states allying with Russia and China.

Traoré is inching towards three years in power, and has about four years left as Burkina Faso’s military president. Last year, he upended his initial promise to return the country to democracy in July 2024, and a national dialogue, which civil society groups largely boycotted, recommending that he remain in power for five more years. The recommendation cites the country’s security situation and allows Traoré to run for election after the transition period.

The Islamist insurgency in Burkina Faso, which was cited as the main reason for both 2022 coups, has yet to get any better since the military came into power. About 40 percent of the country is still out of government control, and the army has barely gained ground in recovering areas taken by insurgents. Damningly, military forces have allegedly contributed to the deaths and rights abuses of civilians.

A Human Rights Watch report alleged that over 200 people were summarily executed by security forces based on accusations of collaborating with Islamist groups. In the last decade, tens of thousands have been killed, and over two million people have been displaced due to the insurgency. Traoré and his military government have yet to find a solution to the security concerns, and there’s no stated timeline against which to measure his performance.

For the most part, the adulation and acclaim for Traoré are primarily ideological, which raises skepticism about what he can achieve on a tangible scale. History also shows that African military leaders and revolutionaries tend to reveal a darker side as they spend more time in power. In Uganda, long-term President Yoweri Museveni came into power as a revolutionary and is now known as a strongman despite the East African country nominally operating as a democracy. It’s similar to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, who was forced to step down after decades of bad economic policies that continue to haunt the southern African country.

Generally, military governments in Africa have failed to yield positive outcomes. Even when they start with widespread support, they often leave citizens disillusioned. Across the continent, the second half of the 20th century was defined by militarism, an “ideology of rule by soldiers,” according to Samuel Fury Childs Daly in his book Soldier’s Paradise, which examines the patterns of African military governments. “Nearly all militaries wanted to transform their countries, even though they didn’t always spell out exactly what they wanted them to become,” Daly writes.

The last thing Africa needs is leaders who can’t be held accountable and can lord their power over citizens without checks, even if they present themselves as crusaders. Having that level of power can corrupt, as the past has shown.

Traoré could very well be the type of leader who breaks the wheel, but he’s dabbling in established behaviors typical of military governments, especially restricting the country’s social and political atmosphere. Media in the country is also tightly controlled; the junta suspended a handful of media outlets for reporting on the alleged massacre, as published in the Human Rights Watch report.

In 2023, Traoré signed a general mobilization decree that allows the government to randomly conscript people aged 18 and above to fight against insurgents. Critics have decried the implementation of the decree as a way to target independent voices, such as journalist and activist Daouda Diallo, who was abducted and held to be conscripted for four months.

Amidst celebrating his anti-Western stance and autocratic leadership, the jury is still out on Captain Traoré’s legacy as an African leader. The next few years will show whether he’s truly earned the revolutionary tag or is in the same lineage as his predecessors across the continent over the decades.

Update: This story has been updated with the most recent information as of Sept. 17, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. WAT.

The governments of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, under the recently-formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES), are set to launch new biometric passports to facilitate travel among the three countries, as they drift further from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The three West African countries, led by military regimes, see the new passport as a means of “harmonizing travel documents in our common area.” This development is despite concerns from ECOWAS that their withdrawal from the regional body could “undermine the freedom of movement and common market.”

The new passport reiterates the hardline stance of confederation with regards to its relationship with ECOWAS.

In July, ECOWAS tasked Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye with leading negotiations that might bring Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso back into the regional bloc. This was around the same time the three junta-led countries held the first summit of the new AES confederation, five months after its leaders announced they would be pulling out of ECOWAS.

“Our people have turned its back irrevocably to ECOWAS, it’s now up to us to create AES,” Niger’s head of state, Abdourahamane Tchiani, said during the summit in Niamey, capital of Niger. “[AES] is an alternative to any artificial regional grouping, by building a sovereign community of peoples.”

Adding to Tchiani’s remarks, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré stated that ECOWAS was subject to imperialism from the West, especially as the member states of the newly-formed AES have severed ties with their former colonizers, France, and is bent on not being associated with anything French-adjacent.

The formation of AES symbolically strengthens the alliance between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and continues a collective coldness towards ECOWAS. All three countries experienced coups between 2021 and 2023, with the regional bloc suspending each country and imposing sanctions after every coup. Last year’s hardline stance by ECOWAS against the coup in Niger was integral in the three countries coming together for common purposes.

Chaired by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, ECOWAS threatened Niger with military intervention if overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum wasn’t reinstated. The country’s assets in ECOWAS banks were frozen, 70 percent of its electricity, from neighboring Nigeria, was cut off, and a no-fly zone on commercial flights to and from Niger was instituted. Shortly after, Niger allied itself with Mali and Burkina Faso, who already had their gripes with ECOWAS.

In late February, ECOWAS lifted several financial and economic sanctions placed on the three countries, as well as Guinea, which had been suspended following the 2021 coup. However, coming a month after Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso announced their exit from ECOWAS, the removal of the sanctions was seen as a move to placate the three countries, which the regional bloc said were “important members of the Community.”

During the ECOWAS summit held in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, on Sunday, a day after the AES summit, ECOWAS Commission President Omar Touray reiterated the strategic importance of reintegrating the withdrawn states. A big part of that is the armed insurgency that has rocked parts of West Africa, of which thousands have been killed and millions displaced between the three countries and beyond.

“Our region is also faced with the risks of disintegration,” Touray said, adding that the suspended member states were allowed to join in on meetings related to quelling insecurity in the region.

Touray also noted that the withdrawal of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso would have diplomatic and economic consequences, saying that ECOWAS would be forced to stop economic projects in these countries worth over $500 million. “When you get out of an agreement, certainly you don’t become part of that agreement. If it is about free trade, free movement of people, the risk of losing those concessions remains,” Touray said.

Meanwhile, officials from the AES member states have continued to double down on their ECOWAS exit. “Our heads of state were very clear in Niamey when they said the withdrawal of the three countries from ECOWAS is irrevocable and was done without delay, and from now on we must stop looking in the rear-view mirror,” Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said in an interview with state broadcaster ORTM on Monday evening.

“I don’t really think the current regimes will consider rejoining ECOWAS, which they see as connected to Western interest,” military reporter and Janes journalist Erwan de Cherisey told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story. None of the three countries is on track for a regime change or a return to democracy. Earlier this year, Mali extended the stay of its junta for three years and Burkina Faso extended its transition period for a further five years, while Niger’s proposed return to democracy is set for 2026.

According to analysts, however, Senegal’s Faye is the best possible candidate for ECOWAS’s negotiation with the three countries. Faye’s recent, gilded entrance into office came on the back of an election that was widely regarded as credible, an important factor in a region where elections aren’t generally known to be free and fair and democratic institutions are malleable to the whims of presidents.

In fact, Togolese President Fauré Gnassingbe — the other chief facilitator appointed by ECOWAS — is set to continue his two decades in office for the foreseeable future, following a much-criticized constitutional change.

Faye is expected to do the heavy lifting and, beyond his credibility as the youngest elected African president, his pan-African stance and active measures to remove the exploitation of Western imperialism from Senegal is expected to resonate with the leaders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

“Like the other [AES] heads of state, [Faye] claims sovereignty and a break with the old order,” Seidik Abba, a Sahel specialist and president of the International Center for Reflection for Studies, told AP News.

Currently, the standoff between ECOWAS and the three withdrawn states is playing a role in the Niger-Benin oil pipeline dilemma, and Mali’s government has already hinted at the possibility of nationals of AES members needing visas to move around other West African countries, and vice versa. This is reflective of the level of diplomatic problems that could continue if a working cordiality isn’t reached soon.

According to Touray, “disintegration will not only disrupt the freedom of movement and settlement of people, but it will also worsen insecurity in the region.”