The Latest Breaking News from Blaise Compaoré

The dust appears to have settled following the recent coup in the west African state of Burkina Faso. A televised statement on January 31 named Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as interim leader and said that the independence of the judiciary as well as freedom of speech and movement had been…

Saying they feel exposed in the face of an Islamist insurgency rampant across the Sahel region, soldiers in Burkina Faso have taken to national television to confirm the ousting of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. But what will a coup change in yet another poor, landlocked nation where radicals seem…

Constitutional government in Burkina Faso can be said to have begun with the proclamation of independence on 5 August 1960. This was soon followed by the constitutional referendum of 27 November 1960 which paved the way for the adoption of the new constitution.

Within a few weeks of the start of a new year and West Africa had its first attempted coup d’état. On January 12 the Burkinabè government announced that it foiled a plot from within the armed forces to destabilise the state.

More than three decades after the murder of Burkina Faso's revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara, getting to the bottom of who gave the orders for his assassination has been an elusive affair, despite the inception of a long-awaited judicial process that got underway in October.