Burkina's military leader warns he will quash challengers

Ibrahim Traore, the head of Burkina Faso's military junta, sought last week to stamp out speculation of a power struggle at the highest levels of government, warning he intended to remain the west African country's only leader.

The prolonged absence of two influential junta figures has fuelled rumours of a tussle within the military government, which came to power in a coup in September 2022.

"There can't be two captains on one ship," the authoritarian Traore told community leaders in Ouahigouya, northern Burkina, on Thursday.

"Everyone who works with me knows how I operate," the 38-year-old captain continued.

"If anyone screws up, I'll take you down without a second thought. There are no strongmen around me," he threatened.

The speculation of infighting focuses on the junta's second- and third-in-command -- Oumarou Yabre, one of the most influential figures in Burkina's security apparatus, and Farouk Azaria Sorgho, junta spokesman and commander of a powerful Rapid Intervention Battalion.

Yabre -- who heads the intelligence services and National Security Council, and is considered to be Burkina's second-in-command -- has not been seen in public since late May.

A number of observers reported apparent tensions between Traore and Yabre as far back as 2023. These were swiftly and publicly denied by both.

A security official, requesting anonymity, told AFP Yabre had stopped going to his office at the National Intelligence Agency and the security detail assigned to his home has been cut substantially.

"He didn't appear at the traditional flag-raising ceremony at the presidency, which he usually attends, or at the recent ceremony at the presidential palace to promote three senior officers to general," another security official noted.

Yabre's entourage says several of his close associates have been abducted or arrested, including Islamic preacher Ishaq Kindo, who had criticised a bill regulating religious freedoms.

"This man is fundamentally bad," Traore said of Kindo on Thursday. "He thought he was powerful because he created an Islamic police force in 2019."

Two officials close to Yabre were removed from their posts by presidential decree on June 17 -- one the CEO of the National Hydrocarbons Company, the other a ministerial advisor for youth affairs.

Sorgho, the regime's high-profile third-in-command, has not appeared publicly since mid-May.

He commands Rapid Intervention Battalion No 4, stationed in Ouagadougou, and is spokesman for KORAG, a body Traore set up to define and implement the junta's "strategic vision".

As such, he has become central to cleaning up public administration, denouncing cases of financial misconduct and meting out harsh punishments.

Since mid-May, Battalion No 4 has been run by Sorgho's deputy and security officials allege the commander has been "abducted" by Traore associates.

His father, Adama Luc Sorgho, the junta's infrastructure minister until last year, was arrested and then "abducted" by armed men, his entourage says.

Security operations have intensified in the capital over the past two months.

Roads that had been closed for years have been reopened so traffic can be rerouted away from the presidential palace, where security checkpoints have been set up, local residents reported.