In October 2014, a massive popular uprising unseated Burkina Faso’s long-time president, Blaise Compaoré, and drove a civilian-led transition that culminated in free and fair elections in November 2015. This report shows the importance of the national culture of dialogue and consensus and the benefit of a vast, resilient network across negotiating groups. Although violence in the country has since increased, lessons from Burkina Faso’s transition can inform the dynamics of popular mobilization, negotiations, and prospects for long-term peace and democracy in other settings.

Women take part in a rally in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on October 27, 2014, opposing President Blaise Compaoré’s attempt to seek another term. (Theo Renaut/AP)
Women take part in a rally in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on October 27, 2014, opposing President Blaise Compaoré’s attempt to seek another term. (Theo Renaut/AP)

Summary

  • A popular uprising in October 2014 forced Burkina Faso’s president, Blaise Compaoré, to resign after he tried to remove constitutional limits barring him from a fifth term.
  • Persistent popular mobilization shaped the subsequent transition and helped lead to substantial reforms. The transition benefited from a culture of dialogue and consensus and a vast, resilient network across negotiating groups.
  • Several recommendations arise from these events. All actors should encourage a culture of dialogue and help build networks between stakeholders well before popular mobilization begins.
  • A rushed transition focusing on the quick delivery of elections may be less desirable than a longer and more ambitious transition that aims to address deep-rooted failures of the old system.
  • International actors should back the priorities laid out by domestic forces and have a context-specific approach.
  • Stakeholders need to anticipate the emergence of spoilers who want to roll back the transition and strategize accordingly.
  • Finally, movements need to prepare for and guard against an inevitable decline in momentum after their initial successes.

About the Report

This report examines how nonviolent action and negotiation processes together facilitated an unlikely peaceful democratic transition in Burkina Faso in 2014 and 2015. Based on extensive research and interviews with key figures in the transition, including political leaders and civil society activists, it was funded by the People Power, Peace Processes, and Democratization project, a joint initiative of the Nonviolent Action and Inclusive Peace Processes programs at the United States Institute of Peace.

About the Author

Eloïse Bertrand is an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Warwick, where she recently earned her doctorate in politics and international studies. Her research focuses on party politics, democratization, and institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on Burkina Faso and Uganda. She is the co-author of A Dictionary of African Politics, which was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press.

Related Publications

For Sahel Stability, U.S. Needs Broader, Coordinated Policy

For Sahel Stability, U.S. Needs Broader, Coordinated Policy

Thursday, March 21, 2024

By: Kris Inman;  Matthew Reitman

As military coups and violent insurgencies have spread across Africa’s Sahel over the past decade, U.S. policy has professed to recognize and address their interconnections across the region, notably through the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership. Yet this effort remains insufficient to meet the scale and complexity of the violence and the underlying failures of governance.

Type: Analysis

Violent Extremism

For Peace in Sahel, African and U.S. Experts Urge Focused Partnership

For Peace in Sahel, African and U.S. Experts Urge Focused Partnership

Thursday, February 22, 2024

By: Katia Cavigelli;  James Rupert

The past month has sharpened a decade-old question for U.S. and international policymakers: How best, in 2024, to help stabilize what is now the world’s largest single zone of military rule and violent conflicts — Africa’s Sahel region? After three military-ruled Sahel states withdrew from the West African regional community in January, those juntas last week proclaimed an alliance aimed at resisting international pressures, including those for their return to elected civilian rule. Former U.S. and African officials yesterday urged what they called vital changes in U.S. and allied policies to prevent a dangerous spread of the Sahel’s crises.

Type: Analysis

Fragility & Resilience

Senior Study Group for the Sahel: Final Report and Recommendations

Senior Study Group for the Sahel: Final Report and Recommendations

Thursday, January 18, 2024

By: Bipartisan Senior Study Group for the Sahel

The United States has not traditionally viewed the Sahel as a region of vital interest, whether in terms of security or from an economic or business perspective. This has led to a pattern of reactive involvement shaped by the circumstances of specific events rather than proactive commitments. This pattern reveals the lack of a comprehensive strategy for the volatile Western Sahel region, which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. In April 2022, President Joe Biden announced that the US government would advance the “U.S. Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability” in coastal West Africa by prioritizing a partnership with Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo.

Type: Report

Civilian-Military RelationsDemocracy & GovernancePeace ProcessesViolent Extremism

Countering Coups: How to Reverse Military Rule Across the Sahel

Countering Coups: How to Reverse Military Rule Across the Sahel

Thursday, August 3, 2023

By: Kamissa Camara;  Susan Stigant

Three years of coups around Africa’s Sahel region — eight of them in six nations, from Guinea on the Atlantic to Sudan on the Red Sea — leave many African and other policymakers frustrated over how to respond. The Sahel’s crises have uprooted more than 4 million people and could add millions more to our record levels of global human migration as Africa’s population grows and its climate destabilizes. Yet the pattern of coups and other evidence — notably from USIP’s Sahel fieldwork, counter-coup research and bipartisan analysis teams — offer guidelines for effective responses by African, U.S. and international policymakers.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

View All Publications