On 30 and 31 October 2014 a popular uprising in Burkina Faso drove out President Blaise Compaore after 27 years in power, when he tried to change the constitution to let himself run again. Compaore had taken power in a 1987 coup in which the revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara was killed, and by 2014 he sought to scrap or extend the two term limit set by a 2000 amendment. As the National Assembly prepared to vote on 30 October on removing term limits, tens of thousands of protesters, mobilized heavily by youth and civil society groups, stormed and set fire to the parliament, the ruling party headquarters, and other government buildings, forcing the vote to be abandoned.
Amid the chaos Compaore dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency, then on 31 October announced he was leaving office, declaring a power vacuum. He fled to neighboring Ivory Coast, reportedly aided by French troops, where President Ouattara received him and later granted him citizenship, shielding him from extradition. The military briefly stepped in, and after competing claims Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida emerged as interim leader, but under civilian and regional pressure a civilian led transition was agreed within weeks, with Michel Kafando chosen as interim president in November.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Blaise Compaore, forced from office by the uprising; he fled to Ivory Coast and was granted citizenship there
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Blaise Compaore (president driven out)
Isaac Zida (army officer who became interim leader before the civilian transition)
Michel Kafando (later chosen as interim president)
Sources
The 2014 Burkina Faso uprising was a series of demonstrations and riots in October 2014 that began in response to attempts at changing the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaore to run again and extend his 27 years in office; after a tumultuous 30 October that included the burning of the National Assembly, Compaore dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency, and eventually fled to Cote d'Ivoire.
On 31 October Blaise Compaore, who had been president since 1987, resigned and fled the country following protests by more than 200,000 people against his effort to alter constitutionally mandated term limits, and on 2 November Lieutenant Colonel Yacouba Isaac Zida declared himself head of state, suspended the constitution, and dissolved parliament.
SOURCE REVIEWEDUS State Department, 2014 Human Rights Reportopen source ↗
An initiative to abolish the term limits to allow Compaore to extend his 27 year rule triggered popular uprisings that ended in his removal from power in October 2014, after which a transitional government was established with the mandate to organize elections, ending with the election of a new president in March 2016.
Citizens of Burkina Faso stepped in to stop Compaore from tightening his hold on power; demonstrations prevented the assembly from voting on removing the presidential term limit, and although he withdrew his amendment and said he would not run again, the concession was too late and he resigned and fled to Cote d'Ivoire, with activists then pressing to ensure a civilian led transition rather than military rule.
SOURCE REVIEWEDCarnegie Endowment for International Peaceopen source ↗
Editorial Note
Coded fate fled the country is verified: Compaore fled to Ivory Coast, which granted him citizenship and refused extradition. The dataset codes this a military coup on 10-30; the character is layered, like Egypt 2011: it was fundamentally a popular uprising (the burning of parliament, 200,000+ in the streets) that forced Compaore out, after which the military briefly asserted control (Zida) before a civilian transition was secured. The military coup label captures the army's short-lived interim role. This is the first of three Burkina Faso records in this window; it ties directly to the 2015-09-16 RSP coup, which was an attempt by Compaore loyalists to reverse this transition.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Blaise Compaore, forced from office by the uprising; he fled to Ivory Coast and was granted citizenship there.
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“World News: Burkina Faso Army Seizes Power,” October 31, 2014
Financial Times
“Army takes over after flare-up in Burkina Faso: Power battle,” October 31, 2014
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →