The appearance of Defense Minister General Célestin Simporé on the state broadcaster RTB was meant to be a routine celebration of the security record under Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Instead, it became a turning point. In attempting to explain away the current security quagmire, Simporé claimed that the Burkinabè army had historically been ‘poorly trained.’ This statement, far from a slip, signals a decisive shift: the propaganda edifice that has sustained the narrative of progress is now cracking under the weight of its own contradictions. The public is left with a haunting question: how did the supposedly deficient army of yesterday manage to contain the enemy far more effectively than the ‘new army’ retrained by Moscow and lavishly equipped with billions?
Rewriting history to conceal the present rout
By repeatedly asserting on national television that the armed forces lacked tactical instruction and operational preparation before the transition, General Simporé is constructing a simplistic narrative: today’s failures are merely the legacy of yesterday. But facts are stubborn. Under previous regimes, despite glaring material shortages and undeniable structural weaknesses, the military managed to hold the provincial capital network and maintain coherent territorial defense lines. Today, even as the transitional regime boasts of creating over 30 new battalions and placing military training at the heart of its action, effective state control has collapsed across more than 65% of the national territory.
The resounding failure of the Russian training doctrine
To replace the old training model, Ibrahim Traoré’s regime threw itself headlong into the arms of Russian Africa Corps soldiers. The result of this ‘downgrade’? A sharp rise in lethality on the front lines:
- An appalling human toll: The massacres are beyond counting. From the Mansila tragedy to recent setbacks in the Center-North, hastily formed new units are paying an unparalleled blood tribute.
- Inability to counter asymmetric warfare: The Russian training method, focused on frontal brutality and indiscriminate firepower, proves utterly ineffective against mobile terrorist armed groups (GATs) operating in small motorcycle columns and using improvised explosive devices.
- Rift with local populations: By sacrificing human intelligence and military ethics in favor of a scorched-earth logic, the new doctrine has alienated rural communities, depriving soldiers of the only effective shield against terrorist infiltration: citizen information.
An insult to the sacrifice of rank-and-file soldiers
To declare on a television set that the troops were ‘poorly trained’ is an insult to the memory of the thousands of soldiers and gendarmes who fell in combat over the past decade. With rudimentary means and rationed supplies, these men held the line against an emerging threat without ever abandoning entire regions, as is now the case under the guise of ‘tactical evacuations’ such as the Boussouma drama. General Simporé’s admission on RTB convinces no one. Two years after Captain Traoré’s absolute seizure of power, blaming yesterday’s training is an admission of impotence. It was not yesterday’s weapons that lacked value; it is today’s strategy that is collapsing under the weight of propaganda.
