SUMMARY

Popular Front (or Front Populaire, FP) was an armed group that staged a successful coup in Burkina Faso on 15 October 1987. While the group did not state an incompatibility before the coup was conducted, it later specified that its goal had been to “put an end” to the “autocratic regime” of President Thomas Sankara.

Captain Blaise Compaoré led the Popular Front, and Commandant Jean-Baptiste Lingani and Captain Henri Zongo were two of his most important deputies. Compaoré had been part of the forces that installed President Sankara via a coup in 1983, and he later served as a top official and “second in command” in Sankara’s government. However, by 1987, the relationship between Compaoré and Sankara had deteriorated. Compaoré even claimed that the coup on 15 October had been a preemptive effort to save himself and his allies from persecution and death; this claim was not possible to verify, and sources close to Sankara dismissed it completely. The Popular Front’s cadre was comprised of troops loyal to Compaoré, and some sources put its total strength at around 100.

After 15 October 1987, the Popular Front assumed power and became the new Government of Burkina Faso. Compaoré became President of Burkina Faso, and the Popular Front was reorganized as a political umbrella organization that replaced the National Revolutionary Council (NRC), which had been the supreme Burkinabe political body during Sankara’s rule.