Burkina Faso opens trial for the assassination of Sankara
But in a country ablaze with violence it may not make for harmony
AFTER BARELY four tumultuous years of revolutionary government, Thomas Sankara was gunned down in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, in 1987, during a coup. It was hatched by his erstwhile best friend, Blaise Compaoré, who has said that he did not order the killing, but who then ran the show until he in turn was turfed out after an uprising in 2014. Since 2015 this poor, arid country of 22m has wobbled along more or less democratically.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “The ghost of Thomas Sankara”
Middle East & Africa October 16th 2021
From the October 16th 2021 edition
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