Two rival military leaders declare themselves to be in charge as popular uprising topples president after 27 years

Burkina Faso’s president, Blaise Compaoré, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, has been swept from power after 27 years by a violent popular uprising.

Compaoré announced his resignation on Friday as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest at plans to extend his rule.

General Honoré Traoré, head of the armed forces, said he had taken charge of the west African country. But further confusion and uncertainty broke out after another military leader, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida, declared himself to be president and saidTraoré’s claim was “obsolete”.

“I assume from today the responsibilities of head of this transition and of head of state,” Zida said in his statement, read in the studio of BF1 Television and aired on radio, after apparently using his position as a commander in the president’s guard to mount a challenge to Traoré. There were reports of gunfire near the presidential palace, and Zida was said to have ordered curfew measures and the closure of borders.



Zida had earlier announced Compaoré’s departure in the central Place de la Nation in the capital, Ouagadougou, to cheering from a huge crowd of protesters. He later told journalists that the former president was “in a safe place” and his “safety and wellbeing are assured”. Traoré’s whereabouts, though, were unknown after Zida announced he was taking charge.

Like so many strongmen before him, Compaoré was forced to abandon the luxurious trappings of the presidential palace and flee for safety as his regime collapsed. A heavily armed convoy believed to be carrying the 63-year-old was seen travelling on Friday towards the southern town of Po, near the border with Ghana, according to sources quoted by Reuters. It was not clear whether he would seek asylum.



On Friday, outside army headquarters, Colonel Boureima Farta, hoisted on the shoulders of other officers, had declared: “As of today Compaoré is no longer in power.” It was a defining moment for the country’s young population, many of whom were not born when Compaoré took charge in the 1987 coup in which Thomas Sankara, his former friend and one of Africa’s most revered leaders, was assassinated.

Compaoré issued a statement on Friday that said: “In order to preserve the democratic gains, as well as social peace … I declare a vacancy of power with a view to allowing a transition that should finish with free and transparent elections in a maximum period of 90 days.”

A car burns outside the parliament building in Burkina Faso on Thursday during anti-Compaoré protests. Photograph: Theo Renaut/AP

The announcement, read out on state television, was a sudden change from Thursday, when Compaoré vowed to hold on to power through next year, after protesters stormed parliament and other official buildings, ransacking them and setting them on fire.

Opposition leaders said about 30 people died in Thursday’s violence. Agence France-Presse said it was able to confirm four dead and six seriously injured, based partly on reports from the capital’s main hospital.

For months an opposition coalition has been urging Compaoré not to seek re-election next year and what would have been his fifth term in power. But Compaoré and his ruling party looked likely to push a bill through parliament on Thursday that would have allowed him to run again.

Protesters overran the parliament, the vote was suspended and the military announced the legislature had been dissolved and a transition government would be formed. Compaoré said he would lead the government until new elections next year.

Demonstrators rejected that plan and gathered again on Friday, demanding he step down immediately.

Witnesses said people remained on the streets in significant numbers and looting of houses and shops continued. Some could be seen on motorbikes carrying bags of rice, furniture, mattresses and other items.

Analysts said Compaoré was never in a position to resist like Bashar al-Assad in Syria and had little choice but to give up. “When we saw the mobilisation of the people of Ouagadougou and the pressure from the opposition calling for him to resign, it was inevitable that he was no longer in a position to run the country,” said William Assanvo, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar, Senegal.

“We saw the army was not keen on fighting for him. He was quite alone apart from the presidential guard. The army was not behind him and there was no will for an escalation of violence with the protesters.”

Jobs are scarce and frustrations are running high in Burkina Faso where 60% of the population are under 25. Assanvo, who conducted fieldwork in the country recently, added: “There was clearly an aspiration for change. People were against his ambition to stay in power for much longer. What happened in the past days shows that however determined he was, they were determined to oppose it.”

There was also popular resentment towards Compaoré’s family and inner circle because of a perception that their business interests, including mineral resources, are tainted by corruption. Assanvo said: “This was one of the reasons to explain why he wanted to extend his tenure, because of his entourage. They feared losing everything they had gained in economic interests.”

He described Compaoré’s legacy as a lost opportunity because, instead of being remembered for steering the country forward, towards the end he destroyed his reputation and “completely darkened this image”.

Many still blame Compaoré for the 1987 death of Sankara, a charismatic Marxist and pan-Africanist who wore a beret and was compared with Che Guevara. Antony Goldman, a west Africa expert and head of London-based PM Consulting, said: “He’s a west-African Macbeth who bumped off his best mate. It was the casual brutality of it. You hoped that like Macbeth he was sort of haunted by it.”

Compaoré also gained a reputation as a regional troublemaker, for example through links to the ex-president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, or instability in Ivory Coast. When the military ruler of Guinea, Moussa Dadis Camara, was shot by an aide in a failed assassination attempt, he recuperated in Burkina Faso.

Goldman said he was also aware that the Islamist militant group Boko Haram operated training camps in Burkina Faso – which Nigeria requested be shut down – but Compaoré failed to comply.

Compaoré was a close ally of the US and France but was also close to Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader, and Taylor, who was found guilty of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity. He had become a regional power-broker, serving as a mediator in the Ivory Coast peace process and in moves to restore civilian rule in Guinea.

The EU called for the people of Burkina Faso to have the final say on who governs the country. A spokesman said: “The European Union believes that it is up to the people of Burkina Faso to decide their own future. Any solution must be the result of a broad consensus and respect the constitution.”

The EU said it was “working with all actors on the ground to find a solution” and consulting with international partners over the crisis. “We are ready to work with the people of Burkina Faso to ensure a return to normality, including the organisation of elections,” it said.

France welcomed Compaoré’s resignation: “France recalls its support for the constitution and thus for early, democratic elections,” President François Hollande’s office said in a statement.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country with a population of 16.9 million and ranks near the bottom of the UN’s human development index. Nearly half the population lives on less than one dollar a day.

Other long-serving African leaders include Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

Africa rising

Since the Arab revolutions of 2011 there have been at least six coups and coup attempts in Africa:

Democratic Republic of the Congo, 27 February 2011

An attempted coup against the president, Joseph Kabila

Mali, 22 March 2012

Military coup ousts the president, Amadou Toumani Touré. International condemnation follows and the military leaders step down in the following months to give power to a transitional government. Coup paves the way for the Tuareg rebel group the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad to take advantage of the power vacuum and seize control of the north, declaring the independent state of Azawad.

Malawi, 5 April 2012

Coup developing after the death of the president, Bingu wa Mutharika, is averted by the vice-president, Joyce Banda, making a phone call to the head of the army asking for his support. He gives it.

Guinea-Bissau, 12 April 2012

Troops attack the residence of former prime minister Carlos Gomes Júnior, who led in the first round of the presidential elections, and take over the ruling party headquarters and the national radio station. Eventually coup leaders and west African mediators agree that parliamentary speaker Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo will lead to a transitional government.

Sudan, 22 November 2012

The Sudanese government claims it has foiled an attempted coup, and brings charges against at least 13 civilians and military officers whom it accused of being behind a plot to overthrow longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.

Central African Republic:, 24 March 2013

Michel Djotodia, a leader of the Muslim Séléka rebel coalition, captures the capital, Bangui, and seizes power. Sworn in as president and holds power until January 2014.

Egypt, 3 July 2013

Abdel Fatah al-Sisi overthrows the president, Mohamed Morsi.

Richard Nelsson