Burkina Faso's former president Blaise Compaore was sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in a coup, a military tribunal ruled on Wednesday. The charismatic Marxist revolutionary Sankara was gunned down in the West African nation's capital Ouagadougou at the age of 37, four years after he took power in a previous putsch. Compaore was charged in absentia along with his former head of security Hyacinthe Kafando, who was also sentenced to life imprisonment. "The court finds Blaise Compaoré and Hyacinthe Kafando guilty of attack on state security, complicity in murder and concealment of a corpse,"the tribunal said in its ruling. Fondly known as Africa's "Che Guevara", Sankara took power on a promise to thwart corruption and post-colonial influences, denouncing foreign aid as a control mechanism.

Source: Daily Nation April 06, 2022 12:30 UTC