1983 Upper Voltan coup d'état attempt

The 1982 Upper Voltan coup d'état attempt was an event which took place on 28 February 1982, in the Republic of Upper Volta (today Burkina Faso), just a few months after a previous coup d'état on 7 November 1982, carried out by radical elements of the army against the regime of Colonel Saye Zerbo, who himself came to power in a 1980 coup against Major General Sangoulé Lamizana. The coup attempt on 28 February, which targeted the Council of Popular Salvation and its leader Major Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, failed.

President Ouédraogo would however not remain in power for long – large protest against his rule began on 17 May, after he purged the government of several radicals including Captain Thomas Sankara. Within a few months, he was deposed in a coup on 3 August, lead by Captain Blaise Compaoré, who made his close friend Sankara President. This began a period of societal transformation in Upper Volta, soon renamed Burkina Faso by the left-wing revolutionary Sankara, who himself would be overthrown in 1987 by Compaoré.