body-container-line-1

Burkina Faso from Compaore ouster

By AFP
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso's interim president Michel Kafando speaks during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the fall of former president Blaise Compaore on November 1, 2015 in Ouagadougou.  By Ahmed Ouoba AFPFile
NOV 29, 2015 LISTEN
Burkina Faso's interim president Michel Kafando speaks during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the fall of former president Blaise Compaore on November 1, 2015 in Ouagadougou. By Ahmed Ouoba (AFP/File)

Ouagadougou (AFP) - Key dates in the west African state of Burkina Faso, which holds crucial presidential and legislative elections on Sunday, from the fall of ex-president Blaise Compaore:

-- 2014 --

- October 31: After a 27-year rule marked by assassinations and growing public unrest, Compaore steps down and takes refuge in Ivory Coast. Suspicious deaths during his rule include that of Norbert Zongo, a journalist killed in 1998 who was probing a murder that might have had links to Compaore's brother Francois.

- November 1: Lieutenant Colonel Issac Zida, second-in-command of the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP), takes power. Zida promises a transition within a "constitutional framework".

- November 16: The army and civilian groups sign a transition charter.

- November 17: Veteran diplomat Michel Kafando is named interim president to lead the country until elections can be held.

- November 19: Zida is named interim prime minister and retains the post of defence minister when his cabinet is unveiled four days later.

- November 27: Kafando fires General Gilbert Diendere, Compaore's chief-of-staff, and orders a purge of other loyalists from within the army and presidential palace staff.

- December 13: Speaking on the anniversary of Zongo's murder, Zida calls for the RSP to be made part of the regular army and sent to fight terrorism and banditry.

-- 2015 --

- April 10: Kafando signs a controversial law that excludes figures linked to Compaore from running for office.

- July 2: The government says it has foiled a plot by the presidential guard against Zida, after months of rising tensions between the prime minister and the RSP, considered the former leader's right hand men.

- September 17: The RSP declares a coup a day after seizing Kafando, Zida and two ministers. Diendere is to lead a National Council for Democracy. The putsch collapses six days later with its leaders admitting they lack popular support. On September 23 Kafando resumes power.

- October 16: The military says Diendere will be prosecuted on an array of charges, including "crime against humanity" after turning himself in on October 1.

- November 8: Campaigning kicks off ahead of a November 29 national vote.

body-container-line