Blaise Compaore (3 February 1951-) was President of Burkina Faso from 15 October 1987 to 31 October 2014, succeeding Thomas Sankara and preceding Michel Kafando. Compaore seized power after the assassination of Sankara and remained in office until the Burkinabe Revolution in 2014.
Biography[]
Blaise Compaore was born on 3 February 1951 in Ouagadougou, Upper Volta to a Catholic family. Compaore reached the rank of Captain in the Upper Voltaic Army and was close friends with Thomas Sankara while in the military, and from 1983 to 1987 he was the deputy leader of Burkina Faso under Sankara. However, he was involved in the 1987 Libya-supported coup against Sankara, and he became the new President after Sankara's assassination. In 1989, he executed fellow coup plotters Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani for "treason", and he had dictatorial powers for 25 more years. In 2014, opponents to his reelection stormed Parliament and began the Burkinabe Revolution, and Yacouba Isaac Zida and the Burkinabe Army seized power. Compaore subsequently fled to Cote d'Ivoire to evade arrest.