After a brief visit to Ouagadougou, Blaise Compaore, the former president of Burkina Faso, left for a meeting with former heads of state and the new strongman of Burkina Faso, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
Blaise Compaore "left Ouagadougou Saturday evening and returned home to Abidjan together with his family," said a government source, praising "his efforts for the return to peace in Burkina".
An airport source confirmed that a plane carrying the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire took off from the base in the evening, with the "delegation of the former president" aboard.
Blaise Compaore was president from 1987 to 2014. He was forced to exile in Cote d'Ivoire after a popular uprising. Blaise returned to Ouagadougou on Thursday, sparking controversy.
Although this was a positive outcome for his sympathizers and a source of real hope for peace, voices were raised calling for his arrest. He was sentenced in absentia on April 6 to life imprisonment for his involvement in the assassination attempt against Thomas Sankara during the 1987 coup.
Blaise Compaore was present at a meeting with Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo (1982-1983) and Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba who were both former presidents. They took power in a coup on January 24.
The latter called for "social cooperation in light of the difficult circumstances" their country is in as a result of jihadist violence.
MM. Compaore, Ouedraogo released a statement calling for the "overcoming of political and generational, religious, and other traditional belief divisions" in order to "rebuild the foundations of our country in a patriotic leap". Three former presidents, Roch Marc Christian Kabore and Isaac Zida, who were overthrown in January, were also invited but did not attend the meeting.
