The final days of one of Africa's longest serving leaders may have come as President Blaise Compaore's government has been toppled following massive protest by civilians in the poor African nation of Burkina Faso. He took power in 1987 in a bloody coup killing his best friend Thomas Sankara.
The military seized control of the government on Thursday and set a dusk-to-dawn curfew in what one general described as an effort to protect lives and restore order.
Unrest has gripped Burkina Faso, a key ally for the West in the fight against al Qaeda, as protests against President Blaise Compaore's government turned violent, culminating Thursday with demonstrators storming the Parliament and setting fire to the building.