Blaise Compaore, the president of Burkina Faso, has been forced to leave power after days of protests by tens of thousands of people demanding his resignation.
It was unclear on Friday who was in charge of the country and news agencies reported that the speaker of parliament was in power.
"As of today, Compaore is no longer in power," Army Colonel Boureima Farta told tens of thousands of protesters who had gathered in front of the army headquarters.
Arsene Evariste Kabore, the former editor-in-chief of RTB Television in the capital, Ouagadougou, told Al Jazeera that Compaore had left the capital on Friday.
He said the military was in a meeting and was expected to make a declaration later in the day.
Compaore had been in power since a 1987 coup against then-President Thomas Sankara, Compaore's longtime friend and political ally, who was shot dead.
Riots in Ouagadougou
Protesters stormed the parliament building in Ougadougou on Thursday and set part of it ablaze in a day of violence around the country aimed at stopping a parliamentary vote that would have allowed the president to seek a fifth term in office.
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