Burkina Faso: Former President Compaore Charged in Thomas Sankara Murder

Bill Oxford/Unsplash
(File photo).
16 April 2021
allAfrica.com
By Michael Tantoh and Jerry Chifamba

Cape Town — A military tribunal in Burkina Faso has charged former president Blaise Compaore with complicity in the 1987 assassination of then-president Thomas Sankara,

Sankara was murdered during a coup led by Compaore, a former friend of his who ruled Burkina Faso for the following 27 years.

Thirteen other people were charged in connection with the killing, including Compaore’s former right-hand man, Gen. Gilbert Diendere.

Charges against Compaoré who took refugee in Côte d'Ivoire since his fall in October 2014, include undermining state security and concealing corpses. However, many questions are being asked on why wait until now to accelerate the indictment officially and, especially during only the beginning of the second term of President Kabore?.

Sankara was a Burkinabé military officer and socialist revolutionary who served as the President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. A Marxist–Leninist and pan-Africanist, he was viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution and is sometimes referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara".

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