Burkinabe Uprising of 2014

In October 2014 mass protests in Burkina Faso forced President Blaise Compaore to resign after he tried to extend his 27-year rule.

Overview

Blaise Compaore had ruled Burkina Faso since the 1987 coup in which Thomas Sankara was killed. When parliament prepared to vote on a constitutional amendment allowing him to run again, hundreds of thousands protested in Ouagadougou and other cities. On 30 October 2014 demonstrators stormed and set fire to the National Assembly building. Compaore resigned and fled to Ivory Coast the next day. A transitional government under Michel Kafando was formed, survived an attempted coup by the presidential guard in September 2015, and organized elections in November 2015 won by Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The uprising was hailed as a model of citizen action in West Africa.