Modern-day exiled African leaders include Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaoré, said to be living in Morocco to where he moved after leaving Côte d’Ivoire.

Compaoré first sought exile soon after being toppled by a popular uprising in October 2013 during which thousands of people took to the streets in Burkina Faso.

The protests were triggered by Compaoré’s attempts to change the Constitution through parliament to extend his 27-year rule on power. He seized power in a 1987 coup after assassinating the president and close friend Thomas Sankara.

Compaoré had overthrown the previous regime in 1983 with the help of Thomas Sankara but it was the latter who became president. Sankara eschewed ceremony, good living and economic progress. He ultimately developed a cult following and became known as the Che Guevara of Africa.

Within four years, relations between the two men had soured. Sankara was consequently assassinated and Compaoré assumed power. Compaoré always denied having had a hand in Sankara’s death, describing it as “an accident,” but many Burkinabés did not believe him.

On fleeing on October 31, 2013, Compaoré was welcomed by President Alassane Ouattara, a close ally, and was lodged in a state villa in the capital Yamoussoukro.

Just as in Mengistu’s case, Compaoré’s warm reception in his first country of exile proved that even the worst of dictators have friends. Compaoré’s departure was however greeted with mixed reactions by Western policymakers.

Although his democratic credentials were wanting, he was considered by the West as one of its few allies in an unstable region. There was concern that he had been “overthrown.” Dubbed “handsome Blaise,” Compaoré was reputed to be, among other things, a notorious womaniser.

According to some observers, female foreign media correspondents carefully avoided late-night “Burkinabé discussions” with the president, a fact underscored by a leaked US diplomatic cable from 2008 that quoted the views of a French diplomat.

According to the widely quoted cable, Compaoré apparently had a “reputation as a sexual ‘gourmand.’” His sexual appetite, it was alleged, “was so strong that he had previously had ‘Rasputin-like’ escapades with the wife of at least one of his Cabinet ministers.”

Playboy reputation aside, foreign diplomats based in Ouagadougou had few illusions about Compaoré, who was widely viewed as a repressive ruler who ruthlessly eliminated his opposition. Notably, two ministers were executed in 1989 after denouncing the government’s “right-wing drift.”

Soon Burkina Faso became a virtual one-party state, a development underscored by the fact that in 2011 Compaoré brutally crushed protests by students and the military.

Whereas toppled Central African Republic leader François Bozizé may not be hounded by such a reputation, in March 2013 he also found himself fleeing his country and headed for exile once again as rebels advanced on the capital Bangui.

Going into exile was not new for Bozizé, who this time around found himself headed for Cameroon, despite the fact that Benin had also offered him asylum. Benin’s President Boni Yayi had reportedly already approved that Bozizé should be granted asylum in his country.

In the meantime, CAR had issued an international arrest warrant for Bozizé on multiple charges, including 22 murders and 119 “summary executions” as well as numerous abductions.

Soon afterwards, Bozizé was reportedly trying to relocate to South Africa. However what stopped him is not known and it is not clear if he is happy, wherever he is today.