Compaore is accused of being the main sponsor behind the killing. Fourteen accusedįourteen people stand accused in the trial, 12 of them appearing in court. He ruled for 27 years before being deposed by a popular uprising in 2014 and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast. Their assassination coincided with a coup that brought Sankara’s former comrade-in-arms, Compaore, to power. Sankara and 12 of his colleagues were gunned down by a hit squad on October 15, 1987, at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council. He enacted a string of sweeping economic and social policies, including nationalisations, public housing and a ban on female genital mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages.Ī Marxist-Leninist, he railed against imperialism and colonialism, often angering Western leaders but gaining followers across the continent and beyond.
Sankara was an army captain aged 33 when he came to power in the Sahel state in 1983, renaming the country the following year from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “land of the honest men”.
#Burkina faso upper volta security council trial#
The court was asked on Tuesday to find him guilty in absentia of an “attack on state security”, “concealment of a corpse” and “complicity in a murder”.Īt the request of the defence, which has yet to make a plea, the trial was then suspended until March 1. Military prosecutors in Burkina Faso have requested 30 years in jail for former President Blaise Compaore over the 1987 murder of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara.
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