19/08/2021
Thirty-four years ago, according to many reports, when President Thomas Sankara's bodyguards requested permission to arrest his closest friend, Blaise Compaore, after intelligence revealed his plot to depose the President via a coup, Sankara's answer perplexed them. Thomas Sankara said that he would never betray friendship and that if Blaise Compaore decided to depose him in a coup, he could do so.
It is alleged that when the Ghanaian secret agency was also made aware of Blaise Compaore's plan to not only depose but also assassinate Sankara. When JJ Rawlings was notified, he immediately called President Thomas Sankara and offered his help in apprehending Blaise and his associates. Thomas Sankara's answer remained unchanged; Blaise Compaore was his buddy, and if he wanted to murder him and seize power, he could. He was completely reliant on friendship.
Blaise Compaoré, when asked 34 years ago why he assassinated his childhood friend Thomas Sankara his response was "He jeopardized foreign relationships."
Burkina Faso’s President Sankara was killed by a commando group on October 15, 1987, during a coup that brought his then comrade-in-arms, Blaise Compaoré, to power. The death of Sankara, who became a pan-African hero was a taboo subject during the 27 years of Compaore’s rule. However, the case was revived after the fall of the democratic transition regime and an arrest warrant had been issued against him in March 2016.
In February 2020, the first reenactment of Sankara’s murder was conducted at the site of the crime, the headquarters of the National Council of the Revolution (CNR) in Ouagadougou, where the assassination took place.
Blaise Compaoré now resides in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso’s neighboring country, where he fled following the collapse of his gov’t and acquired nationality.
