A TikTok account — @panafrica069 — has published a video claiming that Ibrahim Traore, the head of the military junta in Burkina Faso, has declared that no taxes will be collected from individuals and businesses in the West African country.
The TikTok video published on April 1 features a voiceover claiming that Traore has made history by turning Burkina Faso into Africa’s first tax-free country.
The video captioned: “Ibrahim Traore declares Burkina Faso a tax-free nation” has been shared more than 7,000 times with over 29,000 likes and 2,000 comments.
In the video, an AI-generated newscaster was seen reading an imaginary script while a voiceover played underground with other background videos.
The voiceover also claimed that Elon Musk, the CEO of microblogging platform X, is considering moving his businesses to Burkina Faso due to the tax policy.
The voiceover also claimed that Western nations are considering sanctions against Burkina Faso to stop the tax policy.
The TikTok account also posted other videos showcasing policies and initiatives that the Traore-led military government did not initiate.
Since taking over office in September 2022, several AI-generated multimedia contents have flooded the internet to portray the military regime of Traore in a good light.
Policies that were not initiated by Traore are wrongly attributed to the military junta in Burkina Faso. Analysts have attributed this to the activities of Russian elements in the Sahel region
VERIFICATION
One of the clips in the TikTok video shows Traore speaking at an event. Using Google Lens to conduct a reverse image search on the keyframes, CableCheck found a news article from the Africa24TV website.
The video of Traore speaking at the 2024 Academic Excellence Day in Burkina Faso, which took place on August 23, 2024, was attached to the news article.
The video clip of Traore’s speech at the Academic Excellence Day event was used to falsely depict that the military leader declared a tax-free regime in the West African country.
During the Academic Excellence Day event, Traore did not speak about taxes but commended teachers in Burkina Faso for their resilience and patriotism.
CableCheck also examined Burkina Faso’s media platforms and the official social media accounts of the government but there was no evidence showing that Traore declared a tax-free policy for businesses and individuals in the country.
In December 2024, the transitional parliament in Burkina Faso approved the 2025 Finance Act. In the legislation, there are several tax policies and amendments. One of the new provisions in the legislation was that from January 2025, those who sell goods and provide services on e-commerce platforms will pay taxes.
VERDICT
The video claiming that Traore has declared that no tax will be paid in Burkina Faso is AI-generated.
