Karamoko Jean Marie Traore, foreign minister for Burkina Faso, used his address to the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday to reject criticism of the military junta that rules his country.
Traore insisted that the 2022 coup, like those in neighboring Mali and Niger, was necessary to secure the country against terrorist threats.
“It is with my heart full of the memory of thousands of children, women, and men from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, innocent victims of terrorism, that I am taking the floor here this morning,” he said.
“But it is also with a sense of pride — inspired by the resilience of the populations of the Sahel and the hope of the bravery of the defence and security forces of the Confederation, as well as the crucial role played by volunteers for the defense of the homeland — that I am speaking here and having the noble mission of delivering this statement,” he said.
Traore was referring to the alliance formed by the junta governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in 2024 after they exited the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He claimed this alliance helped the three juntas to throw off the influence of colonialism and deal more effectively with “blind and sustained violence” from terrorists and “criminal networks.”
The foreign minister paid tribute to the “defense volunteers” and “patriotic forces” who have fallen during battle with terrorists, including Gen. Sadio Camara, who was “assassinated, murdered, cowardly on the 25th of April, 2026.” Camara, the defense minister of Mali, was killed by gunmen linked to al-Qaeda after a suicide bombing attack on his compound.
“When we see human tragedies, it’s the sign of a shared willingness of our states to escape the vicious cycle of structural domination and exploitation that are profoundly rooted in the colonial and neocolonialist legacies,” Traore said.
Traore praised the military governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger for their “enlightened leadership.” He accused U.N. member states who have rejected the three juntas of “an erosion of trust between the members of the organization, double standards, biased positions, institutionalized injustice, and the instrumentalization of institutions and procedures.”
Traore accused other countries of providing “structured support” to the terrorists and insurgents fighting against the Alliance of Sahel States, and demanded a U.N. investigation of “all actors that finance, arm, and provide intelligence to, and protect, terrorists.”
Traore also blasted the European Union (EU) for putting “political pressure” on the Alliance of Sahel States with a “potential neocolonial offensive.”
Lately, the EU has been making concessions and promising investments in West Africa because the juntas were growing reliant upon Russia and China for support, but the Burkinabe foreign minister gave them little credit for those efforts in his speech. The juntas were enraged by condemnations from the European Parliament in the spring of 2026.
Traore denounced such resolutions as unacceptable interference with the internal affairs of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger and insisted that any transgressions against human rights or democratic norms from the three Sahel states were “exceptional measures” intended to “protect the population” and “guarantee national security.”
“We see that these measures are often subject to selective, biased lectures from others without sufficient consideration for the realities on the ground,” he said. His speech was peppered with complaints about former colonial powers “instrumentalizing” international war in a bad-faith effort to discredit and marginalize his government.
“We adhere to the vision of a rehabilitated Africa with our dignity recovered, choosing our own path and freeing ourselves from the constraints of a bygone era to be the masters of our own destiny,” he said, applauding U.N. condemnations of the centuries-old “trans-Atlantic slave trade” and resolutions endorsing adjusted maps of the world that depict the true size of the African continent as steps toward recovering that dignity.
“This historic recognition, which is part of a noble process, must open the way to truth, memory, reparation, and a real change in the international dynamics that we inherited from slavery in colonization,” he said.
In keeping with his rejection of the moral authority of free societies over his own junta, Traore demanded the lifting of U.S. sanctions against the communist tyrannies of Cuba and Nicaragua and expressed concern over “the situation faced by the Palestinian people and the suffering endured by the civilian population in Gaza.”
“Long live the Confederation of Sahel States, standing strong. Long live Sahel. Long live United Africa. Motherland or death, we will prevail,” he concluded.
Read the full article here