Former Murdered Burkina Faso Leader, 12 Others To Be Reburied February 23
Afimag.com –
The Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara, alongside 12 other comrades will be reburied on February 23, 2023, at the location they were murdered during a coup over 30 years ago.
The country’s Communications Minister, Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo, in a press release said the burial of the remains of Captain Thomas Sankara and his twelve counterparts murdered on October 15, 1987 will take place on February 23, 2023.
Ouedraogo said the ceremony which Sankara’s family have said they will not attend will happen on the site of the Thomas Sankara memorial erected on the site of his assassination.
Recall that Sankara came to power in August 1983 as an army captain at the age of 33. He was nicknamed Africa’s Che Guevara for his fiery Marxist-Leninist.
He blasted the West for neo-colonialism and hypocrisy and changed the country’s name from the colonial-era Upper Volta to Burkina Faso – “the land of honest men”
Che Guevara fought for variety of reforms, including promoting vaccination and banning female genital mutilation which was prevalent in West Africa.
As part of effort to honour him, Che Guevara was idolized by fans and supporters of pan-Africanism and egalitarianism, even when his tenure was cut short.
Che Guevara, alongside 12 other leaders were shot dead by gunrunners at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council in the capital Ouagadougou.
The killings took place on the same day that Sankara’s comrade-in-arms, Blaise Compaore, seized power.
Compaore went on to rule for 27 years, during which Sankara’s death was a strict taboo. In 2014 he was ousted by public protests.
After Compaore’s downfall, the 13 bodies were exhumed from a cemetery on the outskirts of the city for an investigation.
It led to a lengthy trial that culminated in April 2022 with life terms in absentia for Compaore and the suspected hit squad leader, and a similar term for a detained general who had been army commander at the time.
