On May 27, 2025 security reports from Burkina Faso disclosed that a convoy of 47 long vehicles disguised as carrying humanitarian aid was intercepted at a border between Togo and Burkina Faso.
Acting on intelligence reports, Burkina Faso’s brave and undaunted President, Captain Ibrahim Traore described the movement of the 47 vehicles at night as abnormal and instructed his security chiefs to take action.
Accordingly, the security laid siege and grounded the 47 vehicles at a strategic point near the border. A search revealed several tons of deadly ammunition, but which were loaded in humanitarian aid sacks.
The weapons were reported to comprise 15,000 AK47s, 5,000 MI6 rifles, three million bullets, 50,000 hand grenades, 1500 rocket launchers, 200 anti-aircraft missiles and 20 tons of explosives, estimated at $100 million.
An examination of the weapons revealed that some of them had been used in the wars in Yemen, Syria and Libya, while the rest were brand new. The security details revealed that all drivers of the vehicles were arrested after a hot chase.
During interrogations, they disclosed that they had been contracted to drive the vehicles without knowing the actual content of they were carrying. According to them, they departed Togo at different times, using different routes and converged at a point and attempted to enter Burkina Faso.
The Burkina Faso security explained that once they entered the Burkina Faso, the weapons were to be deposited at several private warehouses in Ouagadougou, to be distributed to rebel sanctuaries in the eastern border with the Ivory Coast. The security report further revealed that acting on the instructions of Captain Traore several warehouses were searched, where tons of ammunition had already been stockpiled.
Surprisingly, the owners of the warehouses were former military generals and top business men in Burkina Faso. It is clear that foreign and local forces are still bent on launching full scale war on Burkina Faso, either through a coup or to fuel the ongoing insurgency.
The question is why would some individuals and interest groups in Burkina Faso become accomplices to the grand plan of western powers to over throw Captain Traore and undermine the sovereignty of their country? Another question is why are France and the United States so bent on dominating and destroying a small and poor country like Burkina Faso?
African dictators
Perhaps, western powers need to be reminded that Africa is home to some of the worse dictators, who have failed to address the aspirations of their people, yet they have turned a blind eye to them. Here are a few examples. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, has been in power for 46 years.
He is currently 82 years old, twice older than Traoré, yet the West would not label him as a dictator because he has given them free access to the country’s oil. This is a President who is reported to be richer than his country.
Similarly, Paul Biya, the President of Cameroon, has been in power for 43 years. He is currently 91 years old and almost three times older than Traore, yet France has seen nothing wrong with a President who is half dead and can hardly read, let alone walk. Moreover, Ismail Omar Guelleh, the President of Djibouti has been in power for 26 years.
He is currently 77 years old, yet the Americans and French do not see him as a dictator because his country hosts the largest U.S. military base in Africa. On the contrary, Ibrahim Traore is just three years at the helm of Burkina Faso, yet the west has tagged him as a dictator, who is allegedly using his country’s resources to protect himself and his government.
Unfortunately, it is a typical African, General Michael Langley who is leading the campaign to oust Traore and create instability and chaos, as in Syria, Yemen and Libya. The false accusation against Captain Traore lacks concrete evidence viewed against the massive economic and social transformation Africa’s youngest and dynamic leader is bring to Burkina Faso.
Africa’s progress
As Thomas Sankara once said, “If you see the West praise me, just know that I have betrayed you.” There is ample evidence that the West doesn’t go after the leaders who are destroying, looting, and exploiting Africa. Rather, they go after the leaders who resist their imperial systems, their neocolonial control, and those who fight for total economic liberation.
They killed Kwame Nkrumah after a sponsoring a coup in 1966. They killed Patrice Lumumba and allowed Mobutu Sese Seko to destroy Congo. They killed Thomas Sankara and supported Blaise Compaoré to subjugate his country under western interests. They killed Muammar Gaddafi, and now Libya is a war-torn, modern slave depot nation.
The West’s only interest is their own. They have no genuine concern for Africa’s progress. All they want, and all they have ever wanted, is to see Africa drowning in poverty, terrorism and disunity, while they and their puppet leaders in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, South Africa, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Togo, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, etc continue to destroy the continent from within.
They lie about Islamist terrorism in Africa, but it is their own handiwork. It is believed that western powers create terrorist groups and fund and arm them to prevent African countries from using their own resources to make progress.
Think about it: why are terrorists in Nigeria primarily active in the Niger Delta and areas rich in strategic minerals and resources? It’s plain and simple: they create the terrorists, supply them with modern weapons and push them to destabilize African nations that have the potential to become a super power.
That’s why Boko Haram has survived for longer than expected, while Africa’s third-strongest army, the Nigerian Army, has failed to eliminate them for years now.
The West will continue to support their puppets as long as it benefits them, while they marshal all their military power and finance to kill anti-imperialist and anti-neocolonial leaders like Traoré who are insisting on their right to self-determination.
The wakeup call
In the midst of the turbulence in African the unyielding Spirits of the pioneers of Pan-Africanism: Lumumba, Sankara, Gaddafi and Nkrumah among others live on. The lives of Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Muammar Gaddafi, and Kwame Nkrumah were cut short by violence and betrayal; yet their dreams of a united, self-reliant Africa endure.
Though imperialist forces and their collaborators silenced their voices, they could not extinguish the soul of their vision for a continent free from neocolonial exploitation, and empowered to shape its own destiny. Their legacies continue to inspire Africans and the Africans in the Diaspora to stand up for the ideals of Pan-African.
Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was assassinated on January 17, 1961, at the age of 35, barely seven months after leading his nation to independence from Belgium. Lumumba’s vision of a sovereign Congo, free from Western exploitation of its vast mineral wealth, made him a target.
His inspirational speeches, calling for African unity and economic independence, alarmed colonial powers and their local allies. The CIA and Belgian authorities, fearing his potential influence over Africa, orchestrated his murder, with complicity from Congolese rivals.
Lumumba’s body was dismembered and dissolved in acid, a ruthless strategy to erase his legacy. Lumumba’s dream of a united Africa continues to inspire Pan Africanists demanding justice for Congo’s plundered resources.
Sankara’s policies
In similar fashion, Thomas Sankara was gunned down on October 15, 1987, at a prime age of 37. The revolutionist was betrayed by his childhood friend, Blaise Compaoré in a coup financed by France. Between 1983 and 1987, just four years in office, Sankara transformed Burkina Faso through self-reliance, rejecting foreign aid, promoting local production, and empowering women.
He famously declared, “He who feeds you, controls you”, as he embarked on an indigenization policy for total sovereignty. Undoubtedly, Sankara’s policies, including land reform and anti-corruption measures, threatened Western interests and local elites. Unfortunately, his assassination, orchestrated with foreign complicity was designed to bury his Pan Africanist vision and ideals.
However, the resurgence of Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso, Abdourahamane Tchiani of Niger and Assimi Goïta of Mali is an indication at any point a new generation of leaders will emerge to continue the African struggle for emancipation until one day when light will prevail over darkness. His call for African unity and economic sovereignty will continue to resonate across the continent and beyond.
Like or hate him the brutal killing of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on October 20, 2011, was designed to punish him for reviving the spirit of African sovereignty and Pan-Africanism. Gaddafi envisioned a United States of Africa, advocating for a single currency, army, and government to counter Western dominance.
To fulfill this ideal, he funded the African Union and supported liberation movements, earning both admiration and enmity in Africa and abroad. NATO’s 2011 attack on Libya and its charismatic leader led to his lynching by rebels, an act designed to crush his vision. Consequently, Libya’s descent into chaos exposed Western motives tied to oil and geopolitical control.
Obviously, Gaddafi’s dream of African unity sounded his death knell, but his ideas still haunt western powers. Looking at the current deplorable state of Libya, there is simply no justification for attacking and killing the visionary leader of Libya. Nevertheless, his push for African self-reliance continues to inspire all ell-meaning African who are resisting foreign interference.
Nkrumah’s vision
Above all, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president and a founding father of Pan-Africanism, was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup in 1966 and died in exile in 1972 at 62. Nkrumah’s vision of a united Africa, articulated in his book “Africa Must Unite”, laid the groundwork for the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union). But the current Africa Union operates in the shadow of western influence and interests.
Back home Nkrumah championed industrialization and economic independence which was to challenge Western exploitation. Unfortunately, his ousting, supported by local elites, military, the police and foreign powers was aimed at silencing his call for continental solidarity. Like Sankara and Lumumba, Nkrumah’s soul is flowing through the veins of every African and Africans in the Diaspora, who are yearning for continental unity and sovereignty.
Small wonder that the names of Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara and Muamar Gaddafi were trending during the recent anti-western demonstrations. The simple reason is that their collective visions for a stronger and united Africa continue to threatened the neocolonial order.
Across social media, their names are invoked as rallying cries. Western powers may have killed their bodies, but their ideas remain immortal. From Congo’s fight for resource control to Mail, Niger and Burkina Faso’s push for self-reliance, the dreams of our fallen heroes live on, untouchable by those who sought to kill them. As Africa navigates modern challenges, the soul of these Pan-African giants remains a guiding light, urging the continent toward true independence and sovereignty.
Reference
Juba Global News Network
