Blaise Compaoré Parents: Meet Bila Maurice Compaoré and Tiga Thérèse Bougouma

Blaise Compaoré is one of the ex-presidents of Burkina Faso. He was in office from 1987 to 2014. He grew up in Ziniare where he was born on February 3, 1951. He is married to Chantal Compaoré with whom he has a daughter, Djamila Imani.

Blaise has recently been in the news after he was found guilty of murdering his predecessor, Thomas Sankara. The court has sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder.

Blaise was in the army before becoming a president. He was able to attain the rank of captain in the Voltaïc army. Blaise Compaoré became one of the few people who were quite close to Thomas Sankara.

The two met at a military training centre in Morocco in 1976. Thomas Sankara became the president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987 and he appointed Blaise as his deputy. In 1987, Blaise led coups d’état against Saye Zerbo and Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo. It was through these coups that Thomas Sankara was killed.

He was then elected as President in 1991 but before becoming the president, he was a member of the National Revolutionary Council under Sankara’s leadership, a Minister of State at the Presidency and also a Minister of State for Justice.