As Compaore’s personal military chief of staff, Diendere, a towering figure with a bone-crushing grip, was arguably the second most powerful man in Burkina Faso for nearly three decades.
“He’s got that persona where you are like ‘Hey, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of this guy if he’s angry or out to get me’,” said one Western military officer who met him.
Diendere’s position also placed him at the centre of an intricate web of cross-border intrigues in one of the world’s most unstable regions.
A protege of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, Compaore was accused of backing Liberian warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor and hand-chopping Revolutionary United Front fighters in Sierra Leone in the 1990s and of later hosting rebels from Ivory Coast.
He has denied meddling in the affairs of his neighbours.