Despite the early close ties, the relation between Sankara and Gaddafi eventually deteriorated. On 15 October 1987, Sankara's former friend and colleague Blaise Compaoré launched another military coup, killing Sankara and making himself President. According to some reports, the coup was at least partially engineered by the Liberian Charles Taylor, at the time a close ally of the Gaddafi regime.[4] Compaoré had previously during the 1980s ensured Taylor's release when he was held in a Ghanaian prison, and introduced Taylor to Gaddafi.[5]