October 15 th ; 1987 about 4 p.m. GMT Captain Thomas Sankara president of Burkina Faso and his twelve body guards were assassinated in a military coup. This putsch was staged by Blaise Compaore his second in command . Compare ruled for 27 years and fled to Cote d' Ivoire in 2014 after a popular uprising. He ( Compaore) renounced the citizenship of Burkina Faso in 2015 and was granted the Ivorian citizenship by Allasane Ouattara a cruel rebel leader who waged a 10 -year war bloody in Cote d'Ivoire .Compare and France funded that war on behalf of Ouattara to overthrow president Gbagbo the democratically elected president of Cote d'Ivoire. Gbagbo was arrested by French troops on April 11 ; 2011. Compaore 's Ivorian citizenship is seen as a reward for his role in bringing the war criminal Ouattara to power in Cote d'ivoire. It is rumored he will be appointed as an Ivorian senator by Ouattara after a referendum that is meant to change the Constitution of Cote d'Ivoire by the end of October 2016.