Blaise Compaoré

Blaise Compaoré (born 3 February 1951) is a Burkinabé-Ivorian former politician who served as the second president of Burkina Faso from 1987 to 2014.

Compaoré was born in Ziniaré, Upper Volta on 3 February 1951.

His father was a military veteran.

He studied at a Catholic school in Fada N'gourma, followed by a Lycée in Ouagadougou.

His mother died suddenly when he was 15, followed by the death of his father several years later.

Compaoré subsequently became very close to the family of Thomas Sankara, whose father Joseph treated him as his own son.

After being expelled from the Lycée, Compaoré underwent basic military training.

During his service he decided to pursue a military career, continuing his studies at the Yaoundé Military Academy in Cameroon.

There he became acquainted with Henri Zongo and labor union leader Soumane Touré.

Following the end of the 1974 Agacher Strip border clashes between Upper Volta and Mali, Compaoré was posted north of Ouahigouya.

There he met Thomas Sankara, with whom he developed a close friendship.

Compaoré played a major role in the coups d'état against Saye Zerbo and Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo.

He was a close associate of the first president, Thomas Sankara, during the 1980s and in October 1987 he led a coup d'état during which Sankara was killed.

Subsequently, he introduced a policy of 'rectification', overturning the leftist and Third Worldist policies pursued by Sankara.

Under Sankara's leadership, which lasted from 1983 to 1987, Compaoré was his deputy and was a member of the National Revolutionary Council.

He served as Minister of State at the Presidency and subsequently as Minister of State for Justice.

Compaoré was involved in the 1983 and 1987 coups, taking power after the second in which his predecessor Sankara was killed.

On 4 August 1983, Compaoré organized a coup d'état, which deposed Major Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo.

The coup d'état was supported by Libya, which was, at the time, on the verge of war with France in Chad.

Other key participants were Captain Henri Zongo, Major Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani and the charismatic Captain Thomas Sankara, who was pronounced President.

He has been married to Chantal Compaoré (née Chantal Terrasson de Fougères) since 1985.

During the Agacher Strip War with Mali in December 1985, Compaoré commanded Burkinabé soldiers who split into small groups and employed guerrilla tactics against Malian tanks.

Compaoré took power on 15 October 1987 in a coup during which Sankara was killed.

Deteriorating relations with France and the neighboring Ivory Coast was the reason given for the coup.

Compaoré described the killing of Sankara as an 'accident', but the circumstances have never been properly investigated.

Upon taking the presidency, he reverted many of the policies of Sankara, claiming that his policy was a 'rectification' of the Burkinabé revolution.

In October 1987, Compaoré and many others formed a new political party called the Popular Front, centered around communist, as well as Marxist–Leninist ideals.

He pledged to continue pursuing the goals of the revolution, but rectify policies which he saw as deviations of its ultimate goal carried out by Thomas Sankara.

He initially ruled in a triumvirate with Henri Zongo and Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lingani: in September 1989 those two were arrested, charged with plotting to overthrow the government, summarily tried and executed.

In September of 1989, while Compaoré was returning from a two-week trip to Asia, there were rumors of people plotting to overthrow Compaoré’s government.

The plotters would be arrested that same day.

This event would lead Compaoré to reorganize the young nations government.

In 1990 Compaoré introduced only limited democratic reforms.

He won elections in 1991, 1998, 2005, and 2010, in what were considered unfair circumstances.

He was elected as the president of Burkina Faso in 1991, in an election that was boycotted by the opposition, and re-elected in 1998, 2005 and 2010.

In June 1991, Compaoré announced that Burkina Faso was going to adopt a new constitution.

His attempt to amend the constitution to extend his 27-year term caused the 2014 Burkinabé uprising.

On 31 October 2014, Compaoré resigned, whereupon he fled to the Ivory Coast.

In April 2022, he was found guilty by a special military tribunal of complicity in Sankara’s murder.

He is also the longest-serving president of Burkina Faso.