Boureima Amadou
A travel ban that keeps a former prime minister inside Burkina Faso
Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla, who led Burkina Faso’s government until December 2024, is now forbidden to leave the country. The restriction was imposed by the authorities of Captain Ibrahim Traoré and marks the latest episode in the tightening control the transitional power exercises over a number of political and public figures.
Appointed prime minister by Ibrahim Traoré in October 2022, Kyélem de Tambèla headed the Burkinabè government until his departure from the post in December 2024. He is no longer a member of the executive, which makes the measure against him all the more significant and raises a central question: why do the authorities now judge it necessary to curtail his movements?
More than one man: what the ban reveals about public freedoms
Beyond the personal fate of the former prime minister, the affair speaks directly to the state of public liberties in Burkina Faso. A ban on leaving the national territory is a heavy measure, and when it is applied to a figure who has occupied the highest offices of the state, it deserves a clear and transparent justification.
The wider context makes the decision even more sensitive. Since Ibrahim Traoré came to power, the Burkinabè authorities have justified several exceptional measures by the fight against terrorism, the defence of sovereignty and the need to prevent attempts at destabilisation. Kyélem himself had publicly referred, while he was prime minister, to the existence of several attempts targeting the transitional power.
The security argument and what it leaves unanswered
The security rationale, however, does not settle every question. Several points remain open:
- Should a restriction of freedom be limited in time?
- On which legal basis does it rest?
- Who ordered it?
- What precise charges or reasons are invoked against the former prime minister?
The legal rules governing departure from Burkinabè territory
Burkinabè legislation frames the conditions under which a person may leave the country. The key issue is therefore to establish the exact legal framework in which the measure targeting Kyélem de Tambèla was taken.
A case that tests the transitional power
The matter now reaches past the personal trajectory of the former prime minister. It raises a broader question about the nature of the transitional power: how far can it go in the name of national security without further weakening individual freedoms?
For Ibrahim Traoré, the decision risks above all fuelling the debate about the shrinking political space in Burkina Faso. Preventing a former government figure from leaving the country is never a politically neutral act.
In Ouagadougou, the Kyélem de Tambèla case could thus become a fresh indicator of the relationship between security, political control and public liberties under the military transition.
