Thomas Sankara reburied this week, eight years after exhumation

Thomas Sankara, the revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, was reburied this week. Eight years ago, his body was dug up as part of an investigation.

Sankara’s body and those of the 12 people who died with him, were reburied at the site of his assassination.

Sankara and the others were gunned down in the capital, Ouagadougou, during a 1987 coup and buried hastily, their bodies were only allowed to be dug up in 2015, after the ousting of former President Blaise Compaore, the alleged mastermind behind his assassination.

Sankara, a charismatic Marxist leader came to power in 1983 at the age of 33 after he and Compaore led a leftist coup that overthrew a moderate military faction.

But in 1987, Compaore turned on his former friend in a coup in which he seized power and then ruled the country for 30 years. Compoare who was tried in absentia and convicted of complicity in the murders is in exile in Ivory Coast.

Mimi Mefo Info