Burkina Faso junta tightens grip, bans political parties

The junta of Burkina Faso has declared a ban on all political parties, whose activities had already been suspended since the army seized power during 2022, the BBC reported on January 30th.

According to Burkina Faso’s interior minister, Emile Zerbo, the ban is part of what he described as a process of rebuilding the state. Zerbo said the state had suffered “numerous abuses” under the multiparty system and argued that the presence of multiple political parties had been “promoting division among citizens and weakening the social fabric.”

Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré has faced growing criticism for suppressing dissent, and the move is widely seen as the latest step to tighten his grip on power. This trajectory was already evident in December 2024, when the military junta dismissed interim prime minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela. After the 2022 coup led by Captain Traoré, he had pledged to restore civilian rule by July 1st 2024 – a promise that was ultimately unfulfilled.

Further underscoring Traoré’s increasingly monolithic political vision was the arrest of former transitional president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Ousted in the 2022 coup, Damiba had been living in exile in Togo, but was ultimately arrested and extradited to Ouagadougou. His arrest followed the junta’s announcement of a thwarted coup attempt, as reported on January 7th. 

The new decree banning multiparty politics fits squarely into a certain pattern. More than 100 political parties had already been barred from holding public gatherings, but the latest measure effectively shuts down their operations entirely. Zerbo added that all assets belonging to the dissolved parties would be transferred to the state, and that a draft law would be submitted to the Transitional Legislative Assembly “as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the insurgency led by jihadist groups linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, particularly in northern regions bordering Mali and Niger, show no sign of abating. Despite the junta’s repeated promises to reduce militant activity, violence has continued to worsen, according to analysts.

Alongside Mali and Niger, both also ruled by military juntas and facing similar security challenges, Burkina Faso formally withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2025. The three countries have also become founding members of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a regional cooperation pact aimed at countering jihadist insurgencies through shared intelligence and joint military efforts.

BBC, Maghrebi.org