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Most of the Burkina Faso ex-presidents invited to a reconciliation summit organised on Friday by the country's military ruler did not attend amid public outrage over former strongman Blaise Compaore's participation.

Compaore, who fled Burkina Faso during an uprising in 2014 after 27 years in power, returned from exile on Thursday to take part in a summit intended to project political unity in the face of spiralling violence by Islamist militants.

But many Burkinabes have blasted Compaore's return from exile as a free man. He was sentenced in absentia earlier this year to life in prison for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara, during the coup that brought him to power. 

Compaore's return was agreed between the government of the interim president, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, and Ivory Coast, where he fled in 2014. The Ivorian government has repeatedly refused to extradite him over the years.