A year ago, Ibrahim Traoré came to power in Burkina Faso at the age of 34. Who is the man – and how is the country doing today?
Tanks drive through the streets of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou. Young men on the dusty side of the road cheer at them, some honk the horns of their mopeds, one repeatedly raises his fists in the air so that his dreadlocks swirl in the air.
This is what a video from September 30, 2022 shows – it is the second coup within a year in Burkina Faso. Later, on state television, soldiers in camouflage uniforms and stone-faced faces announced who was coming to power: Ibrahim Traoré.
A 34-year-old not particularly high-ranking military man who previously led an artillery regiment in a small town in the north of the West African country. And they say: Traoré should only be an interim head of state – until a new one is elected in 2024.
Traoré becomes the youngest head of state in the world.