In September 1987, Bagaza travelled to Quebec, Canada, to attend a francophone summit.[2] The army took over, led by Bagaza's cousin, Major Pierre Buyoya.[6] Hearing of the coup, Bagaza immediately returned to Africa but Bujumbura Airport was closed, and in Nairobi, he was refused entrance to Kenya.[5] Following the coup, Bagaza fled to Uganda, and then in 1989, Libya, where he was granted political asylum.[7]
Buyoya formed the Military Committee for National Salvation to take control, suspended the country's constitution and was inaugurated as president on 2 October 1987.[3] Buyoya, a Roman Catholic, said that he would lift measures imposed on the Catholic Church by Bagaza's government.[8] He was succeeded by Melchior Ndadaye following the 1993 presidential election, and came to power in Burundi for a second time following a military coup in 1996, that ousted Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.[9]