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| - A claim that Burkina Faso‘s military-backed president Ibrahim Traoré rejected an invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of the US president, Donald Trump, has surfaced online.
An X account, @AfricanHub_ posted the claim with a caption thus:
“Captain Ibrahim Traore, President of Burkina Faso, rejected Donald Trump’s personal Invitation to attend his inauguration, citing domestic commitments and the war on Terrorism sponsored by foreign countries in his home nation, which he is actively involved in. Your thoughts on this.”
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The post has generated over 3,000 reposts and more than 18,000 likes as of January 21, 2025.
Another X user, @Joe_Bassey also posted the claim with a flyer that reads: “Invitation Rejected.”
The post has also garnered traction on the X social platform.
CLAIM
Burkina Faso President, Ibrahim Traoré, rejected Trump’s invitation to attend his inauguration.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE, as Traoré’s name was not among the list of foreign guests invited to Trump’s inauguration.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, marking his return to the White House after losing the presidency to Joe Biden in 2020.
The inauguration ceremony, held in the US Capitol Rotunda due to freezing weather conditions, is attended by political leaders, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama, allies, and thousands of supporters.
His second term comes amid an atmosphere of panic, particularly among the immigrant communities in the US who now face the brunt of his ‘harsh’ immigration policy.
According to the BBC, foreign leaders barely attend presidential inauguration in the United States. In fact, the Associated Press reported that “no heads of state have previously made an official visit to the U.S. for the inauguration.”
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This explains why most African presidents and Head of State such as the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, were not at the event. However, Trump’s inauguration stood as few foreign leaders were invited to the ceremony.
Before the day of the inauguration ceremony, Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera published the list of foreign leaders who were invited for the ceremony.
The list included Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and conservative world leaders such as Argentine President, Javier Milei, and Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to the inauguration.
Others are pro-Western former Georgia President, Salome Zourabichvili; Ecuadorean President, Daniel Noboa; Paraguayan President, Santiago Peña; Hungary’s Prime Minister; Viktor Orban; El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele; and former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro.
A thorough review of the list and other publicly available information does not show that Traore was invited for the ceremony.
An advance internet search by our fact-checker also shows that no credible media platform also reported such.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the President of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, rejected Trump’s invitation to attend his inauguration ceremony is FALSE; publicly available records show that he’s not among the guests invited for the occasion.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
were any African leaders invited for Trump’s inauguration?
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