She met Captain Blaise Compaoré, at the time serving as Minister of State for Justice of Burkina Faso, on 15 January 1985, when the young military officer visited the Ivorian capital Abidjan and President Houphouët-Boigny. Compaoré had been a part of the Burkinabé government for one and a half years, since he launched a military coup against Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo in what was then the Republic of Upper Volta on 4 August 1983 together with other members of the "Communist Officer's Group". After the coup he put his close friend Captain Thomas Sankara in the position of President. The two had previously been involved in the 1980 coup against Saye Zerbo.