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Burkina Faso Prez resigns
After 27 years in power, the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, bowed to popular anger and announced on Friday that he was stepping down after a failed attempt to seek a fifth term in office.
- President Blaise Compaore is no longer in power, says Army
- Earlier, protesters set fire to parliament and govt buildings
Ouagadougou: After 27 years in power, the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, bowed to popular anger and announced on Friday that he was stepping down after a failed attempt to seek a fifth term in office.
Compaore, one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, made the announcement on national television after initially trying to brush off mass protests and opposition calls for him to quit, insisting he would stay in power for another year while a transitional government was installed.
An army spokesman told demonstrators in the capital, Ouagadougou that President Blaise Compaore is no longer in power. Opposition leaders bluntly rejected his last-ditch attempt to cling to power. Compaore was forced from office by massive popular protests that have been dubbed the “Black Spring."
The demonstrators were protesting a parliamentary vote that was to take place Thursday to change the constitutional limit on presidential terms, allowing Compaore to run for office again in elections next year.
Tens of thousands defied Compaore and renewed their protests Friday, a day after they invaded the parliament, setting it ablaze, entered state television headquarters, which abruptly went off air, and attacked other symbols of power in the capital, Ouagadougou, looting the homes of Compaore family members.
Compaore swiftly abandoned his plan to change the constitution so that he could run another term and signed a decree dissolving the government and national assembly. The army announced a transitional government for a year, before elections were held, a proposal rejected by the opposition, which said it would keep on protesting until the president stepped down.
Compaore was a key regional power broker and formerly a close ally of regional figures like the toppled Libyan dictator Moammar Kadafi and the former Liberian warlord, Charles Taylor, who was jailed by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
