Burkina Faso is a place of immense suffering. It is one of the world’s poorest countries, with 40% of its land mass controlled by rebels and terrorists, such as Al-Qaeda affiliates (like Jama’at Nasr Al Islam wal Muslimin) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. About 800,000 of Burkina Faso’s 23 million people are effectively living under siege from terrorists or insurgents in more than two dozen towns, resulting in widespread malnutrition and terror.
Its military dictator is no more effective at fighting rebels than the dictator he replaced, and less effective than the democratically-elected government that preceded them. Terrorists control more of Burkina Faso than they did in 2022, when the civilian government was overthrown.
But by using artificial intelligence, the military dictator has managed to create the false impression that he is popular, and fooled some citizens into thinking he has real achievements.
The Foreign Policy Research Institute explains that Burkina Faso
is considered to be the epicenter of global terrorism today. It is ranked number one on the Global Terrorism Index Scale (2024), marking the first time in the thirteen years since the database’s inception that Iraq or Afghanistan have not topped the index. The country has been rocked by jihadist attacks on major towns like Djibo, with jihadists using drones and anti-aircraft guns to fight off government forces.
However, the regime’s propaganda forces paint Burkina Faso in a very different light. All appears well in the digitally-constructed alternate reality of President Ibrahim Traoré. In deepfake videos seen by millions worldwide, the country’s president is beloved by international stars such as Justin Bieber and Beyonce. Never mind that these stars have likely never heard of Burkina Faso, nor know anything about the country’s junta president. Traoré’s alternate reality represents an unsettling new world, one in which government-dominated social media attempts to balance the reality of societal collapse.
Traoré sees himself, or at least portrays himself publicly, as a visionary leader…an anti-Western, pro-Russian, pan-Africanist leader…The consequences of Traoré’s style of disinformation will have long-term effects on the political health of the Sahel, if not Africa more generally.
While the Sahelian country’s neighbors have experienced similar disinformation campaigns and problematic responses to governance failures, Burkina Faso is a particularly problematic case given the scope of violence, loss of state control, and the sheer level of disinformation emanating from state sources….Burkina Faso maintains little to no civil society or media opposition, which is unsurprising given recent heavy government repression and the country’s poor educational track record….The country’s literacy rate sits at 34.9 percent as of 2022, nearly half the sub-Saharan regional average of 67.7 percent….
In Burkina Faso, this has created a laboratory-like setting for testing disinformation techniques. Advances in technology play a crucial role in this process, particularly the use of artificial intelligence techniques like deepfakes, which mimic the voice and facial expressions of real people. This technique provides the facade of popular, even Western, support for Traoré’s actions. While occasionally this support is real, particularly in the case of former UK Member of Parliament George Galloway, such political views are very much on the fringe of Western society—Bieber and Beyonce likely could not find Burkina Faso on a map, let alone understand its political situation nor connect with its president. Beyond the West, Traoré has attempted to clean his own slate, ripping footage of low-cost housing being built in Algeria and claiming credit for such projects in Burkina Faso. This is a clear attempt at whitewashing his more nefarious activities.
The military government uses violent, ill-trained volunteers to fight insurgents, resulting in attacks on civilians viewed as collaborating with the insurgents, including villages that shelter insurgents under duress. Such attacks have reported sparked additional ethic conflict and fueled more jihadist recruitment. Burkina Faso is becoming a hub for jihadist operations into neighboring countries, including Togo and Benin, whose northern regions are now too dangerous to visit. Burkina Faso is now filled with anti-Western sentiment, due to this propaganda, and also increasing levels of sectarian animosity and violence. “While Traoré clings to power in Ouagadougou, making full use of disinformation techniques supported by Russia and China, the country is sliding toward failed statehood,” the FPRI says.
