Not sure what metric Joe Penny uses for the “no development” criteria.  Burkina Faso is still way at the bottom on the global scale of human development, but that is not the same as no development.  There has been very large investment in schooling and health care, and education attainment and mortality and morbidity are much improved over 30 years.   The economy is changing rapidly.  I would also say that Blaise Compaoré is neither strongman nor democrat…. just because English doesn’t have a complex noun to describe him in a single word doesn’t mean the default is to choose whichever extreme noun he is closer to.

In Mali’s neighbor, Burkina Faso, strongman Blaise Compaore is still holding on to power at all costs since killing popular leader Thomas Sankara in 1987. After 25 years in power backed by the West, there has been no development in the country.

via Mali – Burkina: Sahel Instability : Joe Penney – Photo and text journalism.