Is it too much to ask for kindergarten ethics from an empire? Don’t take what isn’t yours. Clean up your mess. Treat others how you want to be treated. These aren’t any “radical” demands — they’re the foundation of how we teach our children to care for each other and the Earth. For most of its history, the US has ignored these lessons, and that continues to be the case when it comes to the string of accusations leveled against the current president of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré. And if all of us– the climate movement, peace lovers, people with basic compassion–want to save the planet, this African Liberation Day, we need to stand against the attempts of the US and NATO/Western powers in trying to intervene in the Sahel’s process of sovereignty. The US war machine has long treated Africa not as a continent of sovereign nations charting their own course, but as a battlefield for profit and extraction.
Langley has levelled baseless accusations about Traoré’s use of gold. Tell him to stop lying!
Several weeks ago, Michael Langley, the head of US Africa Command (or AFRICOM), testified in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee to say that Ibrahim Traore“is using the country’s gold reserves for personal protection rather than for the benefit of its people” – an absurd claim, considering that the US Department of Defense, which Langley works for, has stolen $1 trillion from US taxpayers in this year’s budget alone. Instead of using this money for people's needs, our government gives it to hypocrites like Langley who destabilize continents. What’s more, AFRICOM itself has a deadly, well-documented history of plundering the African continent, often in coordination with NATO.
Take a guess why Langley might want to delegitimize Traoré’s governance and the larger project of the Alliance of Sahel States/AES (made up of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all of which have recently allied under a confederation after recent seizures of power). Any takers? Hint: the answer is natural resources and military presence. Traoré has nationalized Burkina Faso’s foreign-owned gold mines in an attempt to actually use the land’s resources to benefit its people. Similarly, upon taking power in Niger, the current president Abdourahamane Tchiani nationalized uranium, and banned foreign exports. Notably, a quarter of Europe’s uranium, crucial for energy usage, comes from Niger. Considering Traoré’s crucial role in developing the identity of the AES as one of the more vocal and charismatic leaders, targeting Traoré is part of a larger project by the US/EU/NATO axis targeting the AES project at large. Recently, this new AES leadership has launched new green energy and educational initiatives. Meanwhile, the US has pulled out of the Sahel states, as the AES asserts its sovereignty in defiance of decades of Western-backed instability. This presence is part of the US’s network of bases across Africa, many of which are undisclosed.
Stand for the AES’s sovereignty. AFRICOM needs to stop its regime change playbook.
When a country doesn’t bend its knees to Washington, the standard US playbook is one of environmental death, either via hybrid or classic warfare. The US has imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela as punishment for not giving it unfettered access to the world’s largest oil reserves. In the Congo–one of the lungs of the Earth–the West’s decades-long quest for uranium and other rare minerals has led to mass deforestation, destroyed water quality, and unleashed military forces that have killed millions. And of course, the US is backing the ecocide/genocide in Palestine in order to maintain the existence of a proxy-state in an oil-rich region. And even when countries play by Washington’s rules, the US will still militarize, build more toxic bases, seek continued extraction, and create mass poverty.
This isn’t just about the Sahel. During Traoré’s most recent diplomatic visit to Moscow, he met with the heads of state of Russia, China, and Venezuela. The US, of course, threatened by this new muli-polar world, insists on pursuing a dangerous cold war against China, to contain China’s influence, refuse to cooperate on green technology, and plow through any region that it views as a battleground, be it the Palestine, the Asia-Pacific, or the Sahel. And always at the expense of life in all forms.
Tell Langley that he can’t get away with his rhetoric.
Traore’s Burkina Faso is not the first Pan-African project to come under attack by the US/EU/NATO axis of power. President Thomas Sankara was assassinated in 1987 after putting anti-imperialism into policy-practice in moves such as rejecting IMF loans and demands, implementing nationwide literacy and vaccine campaigns, spearheading housing and agrarian reform, and a host of other actions aimed at putting the Burkinabè people’s needs first. We’re watching history repeat now, and have a responsibility to stand up for Traorè and the AES before it's too late. We have a choice to make: allow the doomsday clock threatening climate death and total catastrophe to keep ticking or reverse course and breathe life into something new. For the survival of the people and planet, we must resist this imperial expansion and stand for sovereignty in the Sahel.
👉 For more:
- Join our bi-monthly calls to build a movement that knows we need to end war and imperialism to fight for the planet!
- Check out our Earth Month evergreen resources.
- Check out our Disarming Earth Day series!
- Read about our open-letter and the Fires in Gaza are the Fires in LA
- Sign up to organize and engage locally!
Until Liberation,
Aaron, Jodie, and the entire CODEPINK team
