The people of Burkina Faso must "forget" democracy, the head of the country's junta said Thursday during an interview broadcast on national television.
Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in a coup in September 2022 after overthrowing another junta, and has severely repressed dissenting voices ever since.
The military government dissolved the country's electoral commission last year, and then, in February, the junta-led parliament dissolved all political parties, whose activities had been suspended since 2022.
We're not even talking about elections, to begin with," Traoré said during the interview with the public broadcaster RTB.
"People need to forget about democracy. Democracy is not for us."
The transition to a democratic regime, announced by the country and initiated after the first coup in January 2022, was supposed to end in July 2024.
But that year the junta decided to extend the transition period by five years, allowing Traoré to remain at the head of the country, which has been plagued by jihadist violence that has claimed thousands of victims for almost ten years.
The United Nations urged Burkina Faso to reverse its decision to ban political parties and to end the repression of civic space.
Since coming to power, the junta, hostile to Western countries and in particular to France, has banned or suspended many international media outlets and expelled some of their journalists.
