Burkina Faso’s ex-President Sankara to be reburied next week

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The military government in Burkina Faso announced on Saturday that the burial of the remains of the country’s former President Thomas Sankara will take place in a private ceremony next week at the spot where he was assassinated in a coup more than three decades ago.

“The burial of the remains of Captain Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions murdered on October 15, 1987 will take place on Thursday, February 23,” said a statement by Communications Minister Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo.

The statement said that the remains of Sankara will be reburied alongside 12 of his comrades at the site of the Thomas Sankara Memorial.

While the government had announced reburial plans previously, no date had been specified.

The announcement came days after Sankara's family said they would not attend the burial because they were not satisfied with the site.

But the government said the choice of burial site was “mainly based on socio-cultural and security imperatives of national interest.”

Sankara, who assumed power in 1983, was killed on Oct. 15, 1987, during a coup led by Blaise Compaore, a former ally. He was 37.

Compaore seized power and was also deposed in 2014 through a popular uprising after 27 years in office.

The 13 bodies were exhumed from a cemetery on the outskirts of the capital following Compaore's downfall. An investigation that followed culminated in the trial of 14 people accused of plotting the assassination of Sankara.

In April 2022, Compaore, who was the main defendant, was handed a life term in absentia.

Nicknamed Africa's Che Guevara, Sankara was a military officer and socialist revolutionary who served as the president from his coup in 1983 until his assassination in 1987. He remains highly regarded among left-wing Africanists for his anti-imperialist stance.