Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré is blocking a malaria project backed by Bill Gates, involving genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes, which was suspended on August 22, 2025, due to safety and ethical concerns raised by local communities and environmental risks noted in a 2023 Nature Biotechnology study on gene drive efficacy.

This decision aligns with Traoré’s rising Pan-Africanist stance, bolstered by his 2022 coup and shift away from Western influence, as detailed in a May 2025 BBC report, reflecting a broader African skepticism toward foreign-led health initiatives amid a history of exploitation.

Scientific critique, including from the 2019 NPR report on Target Malaria, suggests GM mosquitoes could disrupt ecosystems (e.g., mosquito larvae’s role in algal control), supporting Burkina Faso’s move, though malaria’s 16,000 annual deaths there underscore the public health trade-off, per WHO 2022 data.

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