The Chronology of Military Coup d’états and Regimes in Burkina Faso: 1980-2015

Burkina Faso is one of the few West African countries that had a coups-ridden history. Six years after independence, the country’s first military coup in 1966 led off to numerous subsequent coups. The country had popular military officials who end up toppling one another to become head of state. The coups were very shortish in nature, close-intervals from one another with one exception. Most of these coups were unpopular in nature, not very welcomed by the populace though Thomas Sankara’s 1983 coup is deemed to be off this mark. These coups hampered the country in its quest to democratization. This landlocked country has never changed a sitting head of state via a ballot box apart from 2015 when Roch Marc Christian Kabore was elected into office. This article looks into the chronology of these coups from 1980 to 2015, brief background of the plotters as to what prompted them into military takeovers and the motives associated with these coups.