Anniversary of the 1987 Coup d'État in Burkina Faso
Anniversary of the 1987 Coup d'État in Burkina Faso is held on October 15. This event in the second decade of the month October is annual.
The 1987 Burkina Faso coup d'état was a bloody military coup in Burkina Faso, which took place on 15 October 1987. The coup was organized by Captain Blaise Compaoré against incumbent far-left President Captain Thomas Sankara, his former friend and associate during the 1983 upheaval.
Sankara was killed by an armed group with twelve other officials, in a gun battle at the presidential palace. Immediately, Compaoré assumed the presidency; he cited deterioration in relations with neighbouring countries as one of the reasons for the coup, and stated that Sankara jeopardised foreign relations with former colonial power France and neighbouring Ivory Coast.