Former Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore was sentenced to life in prison by a military court for his role in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in a coup that brought Compaoré to power, after which he was imprisoned for 27 years. even more.

Compaoré (71) has always maintained that Sankara’s death was an accident, but the facts were always unclear.

The case was notorious at the time, with both men sworn in since the 1970s. They met in the army and staged a coup d’état in 1983. The charismatic Captain Sankara was then raised on the shield as chief, and Compaoré became his right-hand man.

Sankara, sometimes referred to as “the African Che Guevara”, pursued a policy with a Marxist orientation and positioned himself as the champion of a separate cycle of African countries, separate from the former mother countries that in some former colonies were still operating behind. sights to this day. Her finger is in the cake.

Prohibition of female circumcision

Under his rule, a polio vaccination campaign was launched, female circumcision and polygamy were banned. He was also one of the first African leaders to recognize the great public health risks of the AIDS epidemic.

He also gained popularity by getting rid of the expensive limousines that government officials moved into, cutting the salaries of generous civil servants and banning his employees from traveling primarily.

Nor did he spare himself: he lowered his salary, refused air conditioning in his office, and ran through the streets of Ouagadougou without security.

rebel soldiers

But four years later, Compaore turned against his former brother-in-law, arguing that relations with neighboring France and Côte d’Ivoire were deteriorating too much. Sankara was shot dead in a new coup in the capital, Ouagadougou. Compaoré reversed Sankara’s policies on many points, presenting his system as a “correction” of the previous “revolution”.

Compaore settled two years later with two other soldiers who also participated in the 1983 coup. They were charged with conspiring against the government and executed after a show trial.

Thereafter, Compaore was re-elected every seven years in an election that was always fraudulent. In 2011, he faced the uprising and rebellion of the military forces, but survived the crisis and remained in power until 2014.

When he tried to arrange another period for himself, it caught fire. Compaore fled to Ivory Coast, where he is believed to have been living in exile ever since. In addition to Compaore, his former guard was sentenced to life imprisonment.