An unusual photograph of Ibrahim Traoré is widely shared on social networks: it shows the head of state of Burkina Faso wearing a beret equipped with a pistol. According to his supporters, this sophisticated weapon would demonstrate the technological advancement of which his country would be capable. This image was actually retouched by AI.

Published on: 04/30/2026 - 5:53 p.m. Modified on: 04/30/2026 - 5:53 p.m.

“The image makes the enemy tremble,” says an influencer who claims to belong to a network of pro-Ibrahim Traoré cyber-activists. The image in question? A photograph of the president of Burkina Faso, who took power following a coup in 2022, showing him wearing a beret in which a Glock pistol is believed to have been embedded. An electronic chip decorated with LEDs connected to an earpiece appears to control the gun.

This image has been circulating extensively on social networks since April 28.

On Facebook, a Ghanaian Internet user praises this equipment, apparently state-of-the-art, as “high-tech African pride”.

But on X, an English-speaking Internet user less favorable to the Burkinabe leader is more circumspect. “The gun is supposed to do what exactly? Shoot a threat automatically or what??”, he asks, in a post seen more than 3.3 million times, where he also shares another image of the beret gun on a red display.

This image is indeed fake: it has been retouched by artificial intelligence.

A retouched press photo

It first appears that the image of the “pistol beret” on a red display was generated by artificial intelligence. SynthID, Google's artificial image detection tool, reveals that it contains a watermark indicating that it was generated by Google's image-generating artificial intelligence, Nano Banana.

In addition, a reverse image search (see here how to proceed) allows you to find the original photograph of Ibrahim Traoré. It was taken in July 2023 in Russia by a photographer from the Russian news agency Tass. In the photo, the leader is wearing a completely ordinary beret, without a built-in pistol. It therefore appears that this original image was retouched, probably by AI, to include the “pistol beret”

As we mentioned in previous articles, pro-Ibrahim Traoré propaganda regularly uses images created by AI, for example to praise the presumed modernity of the equipment of the Burkinabè army or to promote the cult of personality around the president of Burkina Faso.

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