Burkina Faso’s ruling junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré has pulled the plug on a high-profile malaria experiment backed by U.S. billionaire Bill Gates, halting the release of genetically modified mosquitoes that were meant to outsmart one of Africa’s deadliest killers.
Traoré recently announced that Target Malaria, the research consortium behind the project, must “cease all activities” immediately. All samples, officials said, will be destroyed.
For Burkina Faso, the decision was about more than mosquitoes. It was about power, sovereignty, and who gets to decide Africa’s future.
The experiment that promised a cure
Launched in 2019, Target Malaria began small: the release of a swarm of genetically altered male mosquitoes in Bana, a village in western Burkina Faso. The science was bold. These lab-bred males, designed to suppress female reproduction, could shrink mosquito populations and slow malaria transmission.
The disease kills over 600,000 people globally each year—most of them in Africa. For scientists, Burkina Faso was a frontline in the battle to end malaria. For critics, it was an open-air lab.
By August 2025, researchers had secured approval from the country’s biosafety regulators to conduct further controlled releases. Just days before the ban, the team carried out another round of trials.
Then the hammer fell.
Backlash from the streets to the statehouse
The backlash had been building for years. Civil society groups in Burkina Faso accused Target Malaria of being reckless, opaque, and neo-colonial—testing risky technologies in African communities without full transparency.
“The solution cannot be to eliminate a species using gene drives. The long-term impacts are unknown and could be irreversible,” warned activist Ali Tapsoba, a vocal opponent of the project.
Critics also bristled at the fact that the mosquitoes were designed in European labs before being shipped to African soil, calling the project an extension of scientific imperialism.
Online, activists with pro-Russia leanings framed the ban as a victory against Western meddling.
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A government taking back control
Since coming to power in 2022, Traoré’s military administration has pushed a populist, sovereignty-first agenda. Western NGOs have been viewed with suspicion, their projects often recast as tools of foreign influence.
For the junta, halting Target Malaria fit squarely into that narrative. Officials say Burkina Faso needs “locally developed, safer alternatives” rather than experimental science funded by outsiders, no matter how noble the cause.
Target Malaria, for its part, insists it followed Burkina Faso’s laws, worked with communities, and received ethical approval. It maintains that its approach complies with both national and international biosafety standards.
The bigger question: Who owns the fight against malaria?
Burkina Faso’s decision is more than a local policy shift—it’s a blow to global science. Gene-drive technology, the method at the heart of Target Malaria’s work, has been hailed as a revolutionary tool that could one day wipe out malaria for good. But it also raises moral questions: Should humans decide to drive an entire species into extinction? And should Africa, the hardest-hit continent, be the testing ground?
With this suspension, Burkina Faso has made its answer clear.
For now, the future of genetically engineered mosquitoes in Africa is grounded. And in the tug-of-war between Western philanthropy and African sovereignty, the message from Ouagadougou is unmistakable: Africa will decide how it fights its own battles—even against malaria.
