SUMMARY
Burkina Faso – called Upper Volta until 1984 – became independent from France in 1960. At independence, Maurice Yaméogo became the country’s first president. Yaméogo ruled until 1966, when he was ousted in a military coup following a period of popular unrest; Lieutenant Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana replaced him. The 1966 coup was one of many to occur in Burkina Faso, which has experienced considerable interference from the military in national politics. In fact, most of the post-independence heads of state has been either officers or ex-officers. The Burkinabe coups have – with the exception of the 1987 coup – not been violent enough to exceed the 25 battle-related deaths threshold. President Laminaza remained in power until 1980, when he too was ousted in a coup.
Following three years of consecutive coups and several governments, Captain Thomas Sankara eventually took power on 4 August 1983 with the help of fellow officers Captain Blaise Compaoré, Commandant Jean-Baptiste Lingani, and Captain Henri Zongo. Particularly Compaoré became an important figure in the new regime, and was sometimes described as second only to the President Sankara himself. Sankara also facilitated the creation of a new supreme political body, the CNR (Conseil National de la Révolution, or National Revolutionary Council). During his presidency, Sankara initiated a considerable reform program, which included anti-corruption programs, agricultural reform, and changes to the public health sector. The Sankara regime also adopted a pronounced “anti-imperialistic” approach. It was during Sankara’s rule that Burkina Faso and Mali became involved in a territorial conflict over the Agacher strip in 1985. However, President Sankara eventually grew increasingly unpopular, mainly because of his efforts to increase political repression. On 15 October 1987, a rebel group called the Popular Front – which was led by Sankara’s former allies Compaoré, Lingani, and Zongo – launched a new military coup and stormed the presidential palace in Ouagadougou, killing President Sankara in the process.
Following the 1987 coup, Blaise Compaoré became the new president, and the Popular Front was reorganized as a political umbrella organization that replaced the CNR. While President Compaoré initially ruled together with Lingani and Zongo, the latter two were imprisoned and executed after they allegedly plotted a coup in 1989. Compaoré continued to run a military government until 1991, when a new nominally democratic constitution was adopted. In order to run in the presidential elections, Compaoré resigned from the military; he subsequently won a 7-year term as president after running unopposed, as the opposition boycotted the election. President Compaoré also won the 1998, 2005, and 2010 presidential elections. The president’s participation in 2005 election was disputed, as the opposition claimed that he had already served his maximum two terms, as stipulated in the new constitution adopted in 2000. Compaoré on his part claimed that he was allowed to run for another two terms after the new constitution was adopted.
In 2014, President Compaoré attempted to make constitutional amendments that would have allowed him to serve a third term. These amendments were never finalized, as massive popular protests erupted against him. Amid the escalating political instability, the Burkinabe military dissolved the country’s national assembly in October, after which President Compaoré resigned. He was replaced by a transitional government, which in turn was removed from power in September 2015 by the old presidential guard – the Régiment de Sécurité Présidentielle (RSP) – which remained loyal to Compaoré. The RSP’s attempted coup was however foiled by popular protests and intervention by the Burkinabe military. The transitional government was subsequently reinstalled, and successfully administered both presidential and legislative elections in November 2015, both of which were considered generally free and fair. After this, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré became the new President of Burkina Faso; he was the first president in 49 years without any past ties to the military.
Some six years later, the military fought its way back on to the political scene once again, and the year 2022 saw two coups. Spawned by escalating violence in the state-based conflicts against Islamist groups JNIM and the Sahel branch of IS at the end of 2021, the first coup d’état was carried out on 23-24 January, when Kaboré was ousted from power by a group of soldiers. Calling themselves the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration, the junta gave the president’s inability to contain the Islamist conflicts and as the reason for the coup. A few days later, the junta restored the constitution and appointed Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as interim president. Only eight months later, on 30 September, Damiba was ousted in a new coup, and Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power. He was formally installed as transitional president in October 2022 and remains the country's head of state. During his rule, the country has moved in an increasingly autocratic direction. In the spring of 2023, Traoré reneged on the promise he had made to restore civilian rule in two years, citing the security situation as a reason and in 2024, his mandate was extended for an additional five years. Furthermore, in January 2026, Traoré ordered the dissolution of all political parties and in April he went on state TV and announced that people in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy because it is "not for us."
As of 2025, the Burkinabe armed forces consisted of a 20 000-strong army, a 600-strong Air force, and a 34 200-strong paramilitary and gendarmerie. From 2020, a militia called “Volunteers for the defense of the Fatherhood” (Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie, VDP) has complemented the regular armed forces. The idea for the militia was spawned in November 2019, when the government was under immense pressure in the conflicts against JNIM and IS. A couple of months later, Burkina Faso’s Parliament unanimously adopted a law allowing for the establishment of the milita. The militiamen [received 14 days training and were then used for surveillance, information and protection missions, as well as serving as for tracking. Initially, the goal was to recruit 13 000 VDPs, but by June 2020, the actual number had only reached 2000. Over the following years, as the security situation continued to deteriorate, the government intensified recruitment efforts and by 2025, the commander of the VDP Brigade, Colonel Thomas Savadogo, stated that over 80,000 VDPs were deployed across Burkina Faso, covering more than 90% of the country's communes.
The Burkinabe government has also received troop support from a number of other states in its conflicts against JNIM and IS. France’s support came both via the French-led counter-terrorism Operation Barkhane and Operation Sabre. Operation Sabre was a task force of 300-400 special operations forces based in Kamboinsin, on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, with a mandate to conduct counter-terrorism operations. However, relations between the Burkinabe government and France deteriorated during the year, as anti-French sentiments among the population grew, and in early 2023, the ruling junta requested that France withdraw all its troops from its territory.
In addition to France, the Burkinabe government also cooperated militarily with a number of neighboring states, which faced the same jihadi groups. This cooperation was initially carried out under the auspices of the so-called G5 Sahel joint force (FC-G5S), which was set up by the Sahel's five countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauritania - in February 2017, as a means of settling the armed conflicts in the region. In 2022, Burkina Faso, together with fellow- Sahelian military-ruled countries Mali and Niger, left this military framework and instead formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). In 2024, this mutual defense alliance was in turn transformed into a formal confederation, the Confederation of Sahel States.
