24,601,700 people
Source: Tyranny Tracker
HRF classifies Burkina Faso as ruled by a fully authoritarian regime.
Burkina Faso is a presidential republic. The Head of State, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, seized power in a September 2022 military coup, following a January 2022 coup that deposed the last elected leader, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. Since gaining independence in 1960, the country formerly known as Upper Volta has never known a transfer of power between elected leaders. It has experienced civil uprisings toppling governments and multiple military coups, including the bloody 1987 coup that brought dictator Blaise Compaoré, the longest-serving ruler, to power. Since a civil uprising ousted Compaoré in 2014, the country has experienced three successful military coups and other foiled coup attempts, with an interlude of democratic rule. The inability of Kaboré’s government and French troops present in the country to stem worsening insecurity from a terrorist insurgency, which has claimed control over parts of the territory since 2015, led to the latest coups, the expulsion of French troops, and a new alliance between the junta and the Kremlin, with a tradeoff between Burkinabe gold and Russian arms and private mercenaries.
National elections have been absent in Burkina Faso since the January 2022 military coup brought a junta, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), to power, rendering moot assessment of electoral competition. The junta, first led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and then Traoré, first called for elections within 36 months, and then postponed polls until 2029. Traoré, who overthrew Damiba in a September 2022 coup, decreed an indefinite ban on political parties’ activities.
Independent media, political leaders, civil society leaders, organizations, political leaders and regular people face overt and systematic retaliation if they openly criticize the regime. Since Traoré’s coup, the military has prohibited the activities of civil society organizations, suspended media outlets, and silenced dissidents through abductions or forced military conscription.
Institutions largely fail to serve as independent checks on the regime. Since July 2023, the junta has directly interfered in judicial proceedings, defied court rulings, retaliated against dissenting judges, and rolled back historic 2015 judicial reforms, which had previously given the judiciary institutional independence from the executive. The Constitutional Council has systematically sided with the junta’s most controversial policies, including changing the constitution without a referendum or subordinating the judiciary under the authority of the Minister of Justice.
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