Claim: Family photo shows Burkinabe junta leader Ibrahim Traoré with wife and three children

Source: Social media 

Verdict: Manipulated content, Fake

Researched by Alfa Shaban

The popularity of Ibrahim Traoré, the Burkinabe junta leader, has sparked sentiments across Africa on the back of viral reports of transforming the West African country for the better. 

Videos of Traoré in his usual military fatigue, along with soldiers on the frontline fighting terrorists, AI-generated videos of him speaking English, photos of his engagement with other junta leaders, and meetings with other leaders have been widely shared, especially on social media.

GhanaFact has observed that an alleged photo of Traore and his family -- wife and three children has gone viral and attracted significant reactions online.

We observed that the image has been widely shared on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

This report will ascertain the authenticity of the image.

Fact-check 

GhanaFact used Google Lens to trace the original image of Traore as contained in the viral content. 

We found the following:

1. The image was of Traore taking part in the Russia-Africa summit in July 2023.
2. It had previously been used in a Jeune Afrique publication and a social media post by German broadcaster DW.

The image was hosted on the platform of IMAGO-IMAGES with a caption that read: "RUSSIA, ST PETERSBURG -- JULY 29, 2023: Transitional President of Burkina Faso Ibrahim Traore (C) arrives at the Constantine Palace for a meeting with Russia's President Putin (not pictured) at the second Russia-Africa Summit. Mikhail Metzel/TASS Host Photo Agency."

The Jeune Afrique news portal also used the same image for a March 2024 publication on Ibrahim Traore with a similar image caption that credits the same photographer and source -- Mikhail Metzel and TASS.  

An image analysis also revealed that some persons with Ibrahim Traoré in the original image had been cropped out, while Traore has been fused with other characters (the supposed wife and kids) into the viral image.

A feature that exposes the possible manipulation of the original photo is the hand of Ibrahim Traoré as it appears in the family photo. Characteristic of AI images, specific body parts appear off. The original image did not show Traore's fingers, but the viral image does. Also, the wristwatch he wore in Russia is different from what is captured in the viral image.

AI detector analysis

Further analysis using the wasitai.com platform confirmed that there was a high possibility that the image was AI-generated.

"We are quite confident that this image, or significant part of it, was created by AI," the platform's verdict said.

Additionally, there is also no credible report about Traore's family since he rose to prominence.

Verdict

From the above, the image is manipulated and Fake.

GhanaFact has reached out to a number of accounts that shared the said images with our findings. We will update this script on an ongoing basis.

What do Beyoncé, Rihanna, R. Kelly, Selena Gomez and Eminem have in common -- besides being world famous singers? They also all appear to have recorded a version of a banger called "God Protect Ibrahim Traoré" and posted it on YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. It is an ode to the glory of the president of Burkina Faso, who came to power in a coup d'état in September 2022.

As gospel music plays in the background, the music video shows the president of Burkina Faso comforting a wounded man and being cheered on by a crowd of kids. 

"God protect Ibrahim Traoré, stand him in your grace, give him wisdom, give him strength to lead this fragile place," go the lyrics in the version supposedly featuring American singer R. Kelly. R. Kelly can be seen riding a motorcycle as a burst of gunfire explodes behind him. The song goes on to refer to the Islamist insurrection affecting both Burkina Faso and other countries in the Sahel:

Jihadist storms have raged too long

Displacing hearts and homes 

Oh Lord, we need your justice now

In these blood-stained zones.

Later on in the music video, Rihanna appears, calling for  "five more years of soldier's rule", thus showing her support for keeping Ibrahim Traoré and his military junta in power. 

Hundreds of comments in English appear below the music video that supposedly shows R. Kelly and Rihanna, most featuring glowing messages of support for Traoré. They were written by social media users who say they are from English-speaking African nations including Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Malawi. It is impossible to say if these messages were published by social media users or if they are part of the disinformation campaign. 

In total, our team counted at least fifteen different versions of "God Protect Ibrahim Traoré" on Youtube, all in English, and all featuring deepfake celebrities singing odes to the Burkina Faso president. 

**AI created music videos **

However, all of the many versions of "God Protect Ibrahim Traoré" are deepfakes. They are poor quality, not very realistic -- in fact, they all look like video games. Aside from that, there are other clues that they were AI-generated. The face of one man in the crowd is deformed. The banner featuring Traoré's name has illegible letters on it -- AI still struggles to create legible text on a photo.

If you look at these videos on YouTube, they are actually described as "altered or synthetic content", which means AI-generated. But even though these music videos are clearly false, a number of English-speaking influencers have fallen for them and continue to share them. 

Nancy Blaq, a Ghanaian influencer with 2.7 million followers, shared the version "sung" by Beyoncé on Facebook. 

"During her sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden last night, the global superstar paused between her chart-topping hits to deliver a message that left the audience in awe: 'God protect Ibrahim Traoré, protect Burkina Faso'", the influencer wrote in a post from May 10. The video was also shared on May 4 by a Facebook page said to be the Russian television channel Rossiya 1 Afrique.

Pro-Traoré content has also been shared by social media users who support the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which includes Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. 

"Viva Ibrahim Traoré, Viva the Burkinabé army, Viva the AES army," wrote one pro-AES Facebook user in French along with the Beyoncé music video.

294 fake music videos shared by 127 YouTube channels

Our team set out to determine just how widely these fake clips had been shared. To do so, we used a software program that enabled us to identify the fake pro-Traoré music videos published on YouTube and how many views they had obtained. 

While the first versions of "God Protect Ibrahim Traoré" appeared on YouTube in March, most were published in early May. We counted at least 294 fake music videos that were posted on YouTube. Together, they obtained more than 8.6 million views.

These videos were shared on at least 127 YouTube channels. Most of these chains were created recently and have existed for between six and two months. A fair number of them only contain pro-Ibrahim Traoré content, which suggests they were specifically created to support the Burkinabé president. AI was also used to create the page graphics for a number of these YouTube channels. For example, the text on the banners of some of them is gibberish, which can often happen with AI-generated images.

'It's clear that this is a coordinated campaign'

"It's clear that this is a coordinated campaign," says Samba Dialimpa Badji, a researcher in disinformation and fact-checking at the University of Oslomet in Norway. "Even if we don't have the elements to prove that Burkina Faso's government is behind this communication campaign, they are certainly benefiting from it." 

The Burkina Faso government does not have a history of using AI to create fake videos en masse.

"What we've observed up until now is that they mostly relied on influencers on social media -- WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter -- who posted content glorifying Ibrahim Traoré or showing their support for the military junta in power in Burkina Faso. AI makes it possible to create fake content very rapidly, easily and in large quantity," Dialimpa Badji added.

"There is no sign that real people are behind these posts," says the researcher. "It could be that the accounts sharing this content were also AI-created. One single person could easily do that: create different accounts on different social media platforms and create content in an automated way," Dialimpa Badji said.

**Music videos made in Nigeria **

Our team was able to make contact with the person behind the YouTube channel where a clip called "God Protect Ibrahim Traoré by R. Kelly" garnered more than 1.9 million views. The person claims to be the creator of this video, which checks with the date the video was created. The YouTuber, who is based in Nigeria, says he is an artist who specialises in using AI to create music videos. He said that he charges about $1,000 (€881) for each music video. 

He said that using AI to make videos honouring the president of Burkina Faso started out as a personal project. 

"My motivation was that Ibrahim Traoré does what many African leaders don't do," he said. "I admire him a lot." 

"When people saw that these videos were going viral on my channel, they started asking me to make the same kind of video for them," he said. "So that's when I started charging for creating the music videos and promoting them."

The creator said that he was actually behind most of the popular music videos celebrating Ibrahim Traoré on YouTube and TikTok. We weren't able to verify this claim. He also did not respond to our questions about the identity of his sponsors. 

"The people behind this campaign probably looked for people who had the skills to create AI-generated content [like in Nigeria] where you can easily find someone to carry out this service," Dialimpa Badji said.

Was the publication of these music videos coordinated with Burkina Faso's government?

Why was there a sudden explosion of pro-Traoré music videos in May?

Interestingly, the Burkina Faso government launched a new communication campaign to up the profile of the president at the same time that many of these videos were posted online. On April 27, Burkina's Information Agency published a news brief boldly claiming that "Captain Ibrahim Traoré [is] worshipped around the world". As proof, the news agency cited a tweet by the well-known Ghanaian rapper, Sarkodie, who posted the message "God Protect Ibrahim Traoré" on X on April 25 -- exactly the same phrase as the music videos. A few days later, on April 30, Burkina Faso's authorities declared a "global day in support of Ibrahim Traoré", calling for people to take to the streets in Burkina Faso and abroad. 

The posting of these fake music videos seems coordinated with the communication campaign meant to promote Traoré's image, said Mathieu Pellerin, an analyst specialist in the Sahel region with International Crisis Group: "Since taking office, President Traoré has been using direct references to Thomas Sankara, which give him an air of legitimacy, considering the Burkina Faso population's adoration for Sankara".  

Thomas Sankara was the revolutionary president of Burkina Faso who was assassinated in 1987. Even today, Sankara is an anti-colonial, pan-Africanist icon in Africa. 

"This aligns perfectly with the ideas that Traoré wants to represent for his country and beyond: popular uprising, a rupture with colonialism and imperialism in favour of sovereignty, both for Burkina Faso and in a pan-African sense. These are also the messages transmitted by this AI campaign, which is amplifying his message outside of Burkina Faso."

**Videos aimed at an English-speaking public **

Most of these fake music videos promoting Ibrahim Traoré feature singers from the English-speaking world. This isn't by chance. According to the BBC, the users posting most content on X in support of Ibrahim Traoré are from the English-speaking world, including Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and the United States.

"We've noticed that these posts are especially going viral in English-speaking countries. So I think that means that these countries have been targeted, probably in an attempt to break out of the straightjacket of the French-speaking world," says Dialimpa Badji, "They have probably concluded that in the French-speaking world, particularly in West Africa, a percentage of the public will already know about Traoré. And so perhaps that populations won't be as easy to manipulate with this type of content, because they know a bit already about the situation in the Sahel, in Burkina Faso, in Niger... where there is already a sort of defiance against those in power."

"This propaganda is probably meant to mask the failure of Traoré's security policies and to promote his political position both nationally and internationally, to reduce the chance that he might end up diplomatically isolated," Pellerin says. 

"He's had undeniable success with the latter, considering his popularity within the region and internationally. But I don't think that it is quite the same internally. Even though the president has a base of popular support, it seems like that has been eroding, considering the fact that the regime hasn't been able to restore security in the country. Not to mention the fact that increasing numbers of civilians have been arrested."

In recent weeks, Burkina Faso has suffered several setbacks in its fight against jihadists with JNIM, a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda.

"Considering the success of this campaign, it wouldn't be surprising if other countries start using the same technique -- like Mali, for example, where disinformation is already rampant," Dialimpa Badji said.

Throughout West Africa it has become difficult to avoid the blitz of viral videos, memes and social media posts glorifying the military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Experts say that there has been a calculated campaign to elevate the stature of one man in particular: Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, the youngest leader on the continent, who seized power by overthrowing Burkina Faso's previous military junta in 2022.

"I've never seen anything like it," host Martine Dennis said in the May 13 episode of her Africa Here & Now podcast. "Ibrahim Traoré seems to be online, everywhere, all the time. In much of the material, he's lionized as the young king of Africa, but there's clearly fakery involved."

Investigative journalist David Hundeyin, editor of West Africa Weekly, said most of the social media campaign around the 37-year-old Traoré is controlled by third parties. Some use cheap-looking, cartoonish videos generated by artificial intelligence to falsely attribute progress and development to Traoré's leadership.

In one video, a massive, low-cost high-rise housing development in Tizi Ouzou, northern Algeria, is presented as something being built in Burkina Faso. Another shows Traoré at the inauguration of a cement plant alongside false claims that he had announced a drop in cement prices.

"They go way overboard, and that's why you get a lot of these AI-generated videos with incredible visuals from places around the world," he said during the podcast. "People are claiming that this is some fantastic revolution taking place in Burkina Faso. So these things are very easy to disprove and discredit."

Since the coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, violent extremist organizations backed by al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have dramatically expanded their operations. In Burkina Faso alone, more than 2 million people have lost their homes, and the number of people killed by terror groups has nearly tripled since the second coup in 2022.

Terrorism has run rampant in the three coup-plagued countries that broke away from regional bloc ECOWAS to form their own Alliance of Sahel States. Experts say deteriorating security and unstable governance in the Sahel set the stage for Russia to unleash a flood of false information.

"In countries with significant instability, military juntas already limit speech and dissent, paving the way for pro-Russian sentiment and anti-imperialist rhetoric to flourish, further shifting the tide to support the Kremlin's activities in areas of the Sahel," Vikram Kolli wrote in a March 7 analysis for the Harvard International Review.

Russia launched its "African Initiative" news agency to take advantage of the 300 million Africans who have joined social media in the past seven years and the 600 million internet users on the continent.

"Inadequate media infrastructure, newspaper distribution and poor internet have created information poverty throughout the continent, and, consequently, many Africans rely on social media platforms for the majority of their news --- a vulnerability to misinformation," Kolli stated.

The African Initiative primarily spreads fake news and false information through social media accounts, websites such as afrinz.ru and VKontakte, and channels on Telegram such as "Smile and Wave." The content is produced by "Russian propaganda units and then given to these influencers, through the middlemen, to post on social media," Nigerian journalist Philip Obaji told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at the pan-African think-tank Good Governance Africa, said the deceptive social media campaign has spread as far as Nigeria.

"This growing admiration for Traoré in Nigeria poses serious risks to national security and democratic stability," he told AFP. "It normalizes military intervention as a viable political solution and opens the door to foreign ideological interference."

Experts have noted the irony of Russia promoting anti-colonial rhetoric in African countries where it has embedded operatives and mercenaries in the military and government, helping to drive a massive effort to extract natural resources. From gold mining alone, Russia has "siphoned $2.5 billion in earnings" since 2022, according to Geopolitical Intelligence Services.

Kolli said that Sahelian countries are on a dangerous path.

"Without a genuine commitment to prioritizing long-term stability over short-term geopolitics, the feedback loop of external interference and internal turmoil will likely continue, leaving the Sahel trapped in a battle that compromises its future," he wrote.

Recently, a video has been circulated across various internet platforms, claiming to show a speech by Burkina Faso's military officer and President Ibrahim Traoré under the title: "Protesting Western Media's False Representation of Africa and the West's Economic Exploitation of Africa." test

See the posts circulated on Facebook making this claim here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).

See the video on YouTube making the same claim here (archive).

See the video on Instagram making the same claim here (archive).

Fact Check

The Rumor Scanner team's investigation reveals that the video of Burkina Faso's President Ibrahim Traoré delivering a speech is not real. In fact, the deepfake video claiming to show Ibrahim Traoré's speech was created with the help of artificial intelligence and is being circulated as authentic.

During the investigation, a video titled "Ibrahim Traoré EXPOSES Western Media: 'We're Recording Every Lie You Tell About Africa'" was found on the YouTube channel Univers Inspirant, published on May 25. The video being circulated under the claim closely resembles this one.

In the detailed description of this video, under the heading "IMPORTANT NOTICE," it is stated that the video is entirely based on fictional content and was created for entertainment purposes only. While the content is inspired by real-world events, all the scenarios, dialogues, and characters portrayed are entirely fictional. Although inspired by the life of Ibrahim Traoré, the depicted events and dialogues are not real and are part of an artistic creation. The video is not directly related to any real person or institution. The purpose of this video is not to deliver a political message but solely for entertainment and artistic expression. Viewers are advised to conduct their own research on the matter.

Additionally, the same description labels the content as "altered or synthetic content," indicating that its audio and visuals were significantly edited or digitally created.

Based on the above information, a 15-second clip from the circulated video was uploaded to the AI detection website Hive Moderation, which showed a 99% probability that the audio and 100% probability that the video were AI-generated.

Similarly, uploading the clip to the AI detection site Sensity indicated a 95% probability that the audio and a 98% probability that the video were generated using AI technology.

Therefore, the deepfake video falsely claiming to show a speech by Burkina Faso's President Ibrahim Traoré is being circulated as if it were real --- which is false.

Sources

• Univers Inspirant -- Ibrahim Traoré EXPOSES Western Media: 'We're Recording Every Lie You Tell About Africa'
• Hive Moderation -- Website

Bizarre AI-generated videos of people expressing support for Burkina Faso's new military junta have appeared online, in what could be a clumsy attempt to spread pro-military propaganda.

It's unclear who created the videos, but it appears they are being shared via WhatsApp.

One of the videos was shared widely on Twitter this week when it was shared by Lauren Blanchard, a specialist in African affairs at the Congressional Research Service in the US. Blanchard said that the video had been circulating on WhatsApp but did not know who had made it.

"Hello to the African people and particularly to the Burkinabe people. My name is Alisha and I'm a Pan-Africanist," says one figure in the video, which VICE World News has confirmed was created by the AI video generator Synthesia.

Synthesia said that it had banned the user who created the videos but would not reveal their identity.

The AI-generated avatar in the video continues: "I appeal to the solidarity of the Burkinabe people, and the people of Burkina Faso to effectively support the authorities of the transition."

"Let us all remain mobilised by the Burkinabe people in this struggle. Homeland or death. We shall overcome."

The video has appeared alongside a similar clip, featuring several different avatars but reading the same script, also created using Synthesia.

The second video was posted on Facebook on the 23rd of January by Ibrahima Maiga, who describes himself as a Sahelian political scientist from Burkina Faso. Maiga, who has posted in support of the country's new regime, told VICE World News via Facebook Messenger that he had found the video on WhatsApp before posting it to Facebook, and that he was not aware that it had been created with AI.

He appears to have deleted the video shortly after VICE World News contacted him.

Burkina Faso is currently ruled by Interim President Ibrahim Traore, who seized power in a coup in September. The army now runs the West African country, having claimed that previous governments had failed to halt the spread of jihadist violence.

Some users on Twitter attributed the videos to the Wagner Group, the Russian private military company, without evidence.

Wagner is one of the world's most secretive and brutal mercenary groups, and has worked with governments in Mali and the Central African Republic. Burkina Faso's military authorities have previously denied allegations that they've hired the mercenaries to help them fight an Islamist insurgency, but this week France agreed to a request from its former colony to withdraw all troops from the country.

While Russia has been known to deploy deepfakes during the war in Ukraine, it's not known if Wagner has ever used AI to generate videos such as these.

Tracy Harwood, professor of digital culture at De Montfort University in the UK, told VICE World News that she'd be surprised if anyone really fell for the Burkina Faso videos.

"With the fallout from the evidence of Russian influence in manipulating political outcomes, who would really trust any online content in support of a political standpoint -- the people that political issues impact need ground truth, not virtual truth," she said. "These videos totally smack of keyboard warriors doing their thing as far from the action as they can possibly be!"

A video on how AI avatars are created on Synthesia's YouTube account features one of the same avatars seen in the Burkina Faso videos, which says: "A team of content moderators makes sure that nobody breaks the rules, so it is impossible to spread misinformation, disinformation or obscenity through videos created by Synthesia Studio."

The CEO of Synthesia, Victor Riparbelli, declined to tell VICE World News who created the videos, but said: "We have strict guidelines for which type of content we allow to be created on our platform and we deeply condemn any misuse. The recent videos that emerged are in breach of our ToS and we have identified and banned the user in question.

"As a company, we invested very early into content moderation to ensure our tens of thousands of customers benefit from a safe platform."

He added: "Cases like this highlight how difficult moderation is. The scripts in question do not use explicit language and require deep contextual understanding of the subject matter. No system will ever be perfect, but to avoid similar situations arising in future we will continue our work towards improving systems."