2023-10-04 20:34:51
Former president and father of the Burkinabè revolution Thomas Sankara, killed on October 15, 1987 during a putsch, will be elevated to the rank of “hero of the Nation”, the transitional government in Burkina Faso decided on Wednesday. A national and international ceremony will be organized on October 15.
Published on: 04/10/2023 – 22:34
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The transitional government in Burkina Faso decided on Wednesday October 4 to elevate the former president and father of the Burkinabè revolution Thomas Sankara, killed on October 15, 1987 during a putsch, to the rank of “Hero of the Nation”.
“The consecration of the status of hero of the Nation” to Thomas Sankara “aims to perpetuate the cardinal values which founded the Republic”, justified the government.
Coming to power through a putsch in August 1983, Thomas Sankara, a pan-African icon, was killed on October 15, 1987 during a coup d’état instigated by his number two, Blaise Compaoré. That day, the Burkinabè president was in a meeting at the headquarters of his National Council of the Revolution (CNR) when a commando of putschist soldiers arrived on the spot and shot him and his companions.
The status of “Hero of the Nation” was created in June 2022 to honor people who have distinguished themselves in particular by their “exceptional bravery in the defense of a national cause” or their “exceptional and honorable prowess for the Nation”.
Read alsoWho was Thomas Sankara?
A ceremony on October 15
After the death of Thomas Sankara, Blaise Compaoré remained in power until a popular insurrection which led to his fall in 2014.
In April 2022, after a six-month trial, the Ouagadougou military court sentenced Blaise Compaoré, who lives in Ivory Coast, in absentia to life in prison for his role in the assassination of Thomas Sankara.
Buried for the first time in a cemetery on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the bodies of Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions were exhumed on May 25, 2015, for the purposes of legal proceedings before being buried in a memorial erected at the very site of their assassination.
A “national and international ceremony of tribute to the victims will be organized on October 15, 2023, to honor their memories”, according to the government.
The transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has regularly paid tribute to Thomas Sankara since he came to power on September 30, 2022, during a coup d’état.
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