On October 15, 1987, soldiers under the command of Blaise Compaoré, who assumed the presidency of the country shortly after a coup they carried out against Thomas Sankara and killed him. Compaoré continued to hold the reins of power until 2014. In 2021, he was charged by a military court with the murder of Sankara.
HE HISTORY OF THOMAS SANKARA
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara was a Burkinabé military officer, Marxist revolutionary, and Pan-Africanist who served as President of Burkina Faso from the 1983 coup d'état he led until his assassination in 1987. On October 15, 1987, an armed group killed Sankara and twelve other officials in a coup d'état orchestrated by his former colleague, Blaise Compaoré.
Where Was Thomas Sankara Born?
In Yako, a city in northern Burkina Faso, the capital of Passoré Province. It is located 109 kilometers northwest of Ouagadougou. Yako is famous for its large mosque and as the birthplace of former President Thomas Sankara.
Thomas Sankara was born in the city of Yako, Burkina Faso, on December 21, 1949. His parents were from the Slimi-Mossi ethnic group. Thomas began his primary education in the city of Gaoua, and then went to Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso, to continue his secondary education.
Thomas Sankara's parents wanted their son to become a Christian priest, but this did not happen because after completing his primary education, he joined the army where he received training at various levels. He first entered military training in 1966. When he was 20 years old, he was sent to Madagascar for further training, and it was there that he studied the works of the famous author Karl Marx, among others.
After completing his training in 1972, he experienced the war between his country and Mali in 1974. This war was one of the events that made Sankara famous at that time because of the bravery he showed on the battlefield. After the war, in 1976, he was appointed commander of a training center for the Burkinabé army in the city of Po, and it was in that same year that he met Blaise Compaoré, who, like Sankara, is a former president of Burkina Faso.
In 1981, Sankara was appointed Secretary of State for Information, during which time he attended his first cabinet meeting, an event widely discussed by many people in the country. However, he did not remain in this position for long, as in 1982 he submitted his resignation on the grounds of restricting freedom of speech.
After a coup d'état in Burkina Faso in 1982, Sankara was appointed Prime Minister in January 1983, but French authorities orchestrated his removal after a visit by the French minister for African affairs. Subsequently, he was arrested along with the country's then-military ruler, Major Doctor Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo, an event that caused widespread unrest throughout the country.
In 1983, Thomas Sankara became President of Burkina Faso at the age of 33 after a coup orchestrated by Blaise Compaoré. Libya, which at that time was at odds with France, was among those who assisted in this successful coup that brought Sankara to power.
During his presidency, he led a government that granted freedom of speech to the people, fought corruption, created jobs, ensured improved healthcare and education systems for citizens, and focused on combating desertification through afforestation. And on the one-year anniversary of his rule, he changed the country's flag and renamed it from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso.
The people of Burkina Faso at that time admired Thomas Sankara's leadership style, which they saw as a way to propel the country forward among its peers. However, this hope was dashed due to his brutal murder in a coup orchestrated by his colleague Blaise Compaoré on October 15, 1987. After the coup, his wife Mariam and their two children were smuggled out of the country for their safety.
After the turmoil, Blaise Compaoré seized the presidency of Burkina Faso and led the country until 2014 when he left power following a series of protests against his rule. In recent years, efforts have been made to arrest Compaoré wherever he is in the world to face trial for his alleged role in the killing of Thomas Sankara.
In April 2022, a military court in Burkina Faso sentenced former President Blaise Compaoré to life imprisonment for his involvement in the murder of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara. Compaoré was tried in absentia while in exile. The former head of security of his government, Hyacinthe Kafando, was also sentenced to life imprisonments