The junta of Burkina Faso has announced that the burial of Thomas Sankara, the country’s revolutionary leader, and 12 other individuals who were assassinated in a coup thirty years ago will take place on Thursday at the spot where they were killed. The announcement was made by Communications Minister Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo in a press release on Friday, who also stated that the ceremony will be held at the Thomas Sankara memorial site. Sankara, who rose to power in 1983 at the age of 33 as an army captain, will be buried alongside his comrades, although his family has stated that they will not attend the ceremony.
urkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara, along with his 12 comrades who were assassinated in a coup three decades ago, will be buried on Thursday at the spot where they were killed, according to the country’s junta. The reburial, which had no previously set date, was announced earlier this month. The ceremony will take place at the Thomas Sankara memorial, erected at the site of his assassination, and will not be attended by Sankara’s family. Sankara, who came to power in 1983 as an army captain, was a Marxist-Leninist who pushed through reforms, including promoting vaccination and banning female genital mutilation. Sankara was killed by a hit squad in 1987 on the same day that his comrade-in-arms, Blaise Compaore, seized power. Compaore ruled for 27 years, during which Sankara’s death was a taboo topic. After Compaore’s ousting in 2014, the 13 bodies were exhumed for investigation, which culminated in April 2022 with life sentences in absentia for Compaore and the suspected hit squad leader. The government said previously that the 13 should be buried “honourably” in light of the trial.
