Two successive military coups in 2022 plunged Burkina Faso into political crisis, eliminating many of the significant political reforms that had been implemented after the 2014–15 transition from the rule of longtime President Blaise Compaoré. While civil society and organized labor remain strong forces for democracy, Burkinabè face continued insecurity and violence from armed extremist groups, militias, and government forces, causing widespread internal displacement. The stated goal of the military’s two illegal seizures of power was to address growing security and humanitarian crises, but insecurity has dramatically worsened since the takeovers. The ruling junta has acted unilaterally to entrench itself in power, postponing elections indefinitely and suppressing dissent.

• In May, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the country’s military leader and transitional president, signed a new transitional charter that postponed the end of the transitional period by another five years, to 2029. Elections and a return civilian rule had been scheduled for July.
• The junta continued its efforts to suppress dissent during the year, targeting activists, political opponents, journalists, and judicial officials with arbitrary detentions, disappearances, and forced conscription into a national militia tasked with fighting Islamist militants.
• As the security situation deteriorated further, government forces were implicated in a series of extrajudicial killings; in one case, they were accused of massacring 223 people, including at least 56 children, in Yatenga Province in February. Hundreds of other civilians were killed by Islamist insurgents, including in an August assault on the town of Barsalogho that also reportedly killed numerous government troops and militia members.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.