Remains of Burkina’s hero Sankara riddled with bullets – lawyer

“An autopsy on the supposed remains of Burkina Faso’s iconic former president Thomas Sankara, who was killed in a 1987 coup, showed he was ‘riddled with bullets”, a lawyer for his family said today. DNA tests are still needed to verify that the body examined is indeed Sankara’s.

Ex-president Blaise Compaore staged the coup in which Sankara and the others buried alongside him were killed.

His family had to wait until Compaore’s ouster in a popular uprising past year for their requests for an investigation into the revolutionary leader’s death to get the official nod.

“But as far as Thomas Sankara was concerned, there were more than a dozen all over the body, even below the armpits”, Mr Farama is quoted as saying.

Authorities in May exhumed human remains from the purported grave of Thomas Sankara, who was killed during a coup in this West African country in 1987. “We can say he was purely and simply riddled with bullets”, Ambroise Farama, a lawyer representing his widow told reporters yesterday (Oct 13).

“There is no doubt about the criminal origin of his death”, he said, adding that at least eight people had already been charged in connection with the case.

Compaore, who was suspected of ordering the assassination of his former brother-in-arms, had dismissed calls for an investigation into Sankara’s death.

Most memorably, he changed the name of the former French colony from Haute-Volta to Burkina Faso, literally “land of the upright”.

The exhumation started in May but the autopsy report was delayed during last month’s seven-day coup.

“During our consultations, the date of November. 29 was agreed upon by the entirety of the political actors of Burkina Faso for the organisation of the presidential and legislative elections”, said Ablasse Ouedraogo, a candidate for the party Le Faso Autrement (Another Kind of Faso).