It was September 30th, and in Burkina Faso, rumors of another coup—the second in just eight months—were circulating, and the country was glued to their television screens. There was no signal. Gunfire and explosions could be heard near the Ouaga 2000 neighborhood, where the presidential palace, the homes of wealthy families, and the embassies are located. The capital, Ouagadougou, awoke in uncertainty and confusion. The rumors were confirmed: a new military uprising had just taken place.

"Ibrahim Traoré is not a new Sankara, but he is a Sankaraist," says a teacher from a school in Bobo-Dioulasso. Following his assassination in 1987, the Burkinabe revolutionary leader, Thomas SankaraThe man who changed his country's colonial name—Alt-Volta to Burkina Faso, "the homeland of upright men"—has left behind a very strong current of anti-colonial thought. This thought defends, above all, the dignity of the African people and "cooperation with all the peoples of the world," in opposition to the "image of the beggar" that the West had imposed through development aid.

"Out with the white woman, out with the white woman!" is the first thing I hear upon arriving at Tiéfo Amoro Square in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso, the epicenter of anti-French protests and demonstrations in support of the military junta that has ruled the country since the coup d'état of September 30, 2022. "IB! IB! IB! IB!" Ibrahim Traoré, the world's youngest president, has promised to restore peace to Burkina Faso, a West African country, by July 2024. An ambitious promise for a country that already has more than two million internally displaced people and 11,312 deaths since 2016, according to the organization Conglicte. in the hands of terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State that operate mainly in the northern and eastern regions of the country.

“From now on, the Sahel’s resources should benefit Sahelians and partners who understand the paradigm shift in today’s diplomacy,” says Azise Sodore, head of the geography department at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The Sahel is the semi-desert belt between the Sahara Desert to the north and the Sudanese region to the south, stretching 5,000 kilometers between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. “The Sahel’s natural resources have made it the target of geopolitical and geostrategic plans,” Sodore says, noting the greed of those who want to exploit them.

It's exam day at the Lycée Française Saint-Exupéry in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Very close to the central market, a hub of commerce, bustle, and shouting, stands a wall with double barbed wire and little signage. From the outside, it doesn't look like a high school, but when you walk through the door, neither does it. There's very little activity and a lot of silence. In fact, it's Baccalaureate day. selectivity, an exam such as the selectivity that allows students to continue higher education and that puts an end to the stage of high school (equivalent to high school).