https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK574AygVLw

Africa’s Youngest President Ibrahim Traore Says The Continent's Story Has To Change

Burkina Faso’s 35-year-old President Ibrahim Traore has set social media ablaze with his comments lamenting how Africa, despite all of its richness in natural resources, is still so poor that its leaders have to travel to the West to beg for aid. He made these comments while attending the second edition of the just-ended Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, that took place from July 27th-July 28th, 2023. President Ibrahim Traore, who is Africa’s youngest president, also stressed the need for African countries to forge new alliances moving forward to guarantee a brighter future for their people. Said to have been a shy but intelligent boy in school, Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traoré is one of the most recent military commanders to capture power in a coup in one of France's former colonies in West Africa.

Traoré was part of the group of army officers that supported the January 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état and brought the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration military junta to power. From March 2022, he served as the head of an artillery regiment in Kaya, the fifth largest city in Burkina Faso, lying northeast of Ouagadougou. However, he was catapulted onto the world stage after overthrowing his ex-comrade Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba on September 30th, 2022, accusing him of breaking his vow to put an end to the Islamist conflict that has plagued Burkina Faso since 2015.