Afrigather The physique of Burkina Faso’s revolutionary chief Thomas Sankara was buried Thursday alongside 12 of his comrades on the spot the place they have been assassinated in a coup three many years in the past.
The ceremony was held within the presence of Prime Minister of Burkina Faso Apollinaire Joachim Kyélem de Tambèla.
Sankara got here to energy in August 1983 as a military captain, aged 33.
Nicknamed Africa’s Che Guevara, he was a fiery Marxist-Leninist who blasted the West for neo-colonialism and hypocrisy.
He modified the nation’s title from the colonial-era Higher Volta to Burkina Faso – “the land of trustworthy males” – and pushed by a spread of reforms, together with selling vaccination and banning feminine genital mutilation.
Sankara was idolised by supporters of pan-Africanism and egalitarianism, however his tenure was short-lived.
He and a dozen different leaders have been gunned down by successful squad at a gathering of the ruling Nationwide Revolutionary Council within the capital Ouagadougou.
The killings befell on the identical day that Sankara’s comrade-in-arms, Blaise Compaore, seized energy.
He went on to rule for 27 years, throughout which Sankara’s dying was a strict taboo. In 2014 he was ousted by public protests.
After Compaore’s downfall, the 13 our bodies have been exhumed from a cemetery on the outskirts of the town for an investigation.
It led to a prolonged trial that culminated in April 2022 with life phrases in absentia for Compaore and the suspected hit squad chief, and an analogous time period for a detained basic who had been military commander on the time.
In mild of this trial, the 13 ought to be buried “honourably,” the federal government stated beforehand.
