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| Africa North |
| Burkina Faso: former president Thomas Sankara elevated to the rank of ''national hero'' |
| 2023-10-06 |
| [AFRICANEWS] Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president used to be Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and was chased out in 2014. Now it's the usual army officer type guy, Captain Ibrahim Traore, running things, who's just doing a bang-up job... 's transitional government decided on Wednesday to elevate former president and father of the Burkinabe revolution Thomas Sankara, killed on 15 October 1987 in a putsch, to the rank of "hero of the nation". That does him little to no good, since he's been dead since Blaise took power. Blaise did apologize to his family a couple years ago. Sankara was the guy who renamed Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (Land of the Uncorruptables or something like that.) I think once you make captain in the Uncorruptable army you're eligible to become dictator. "The Council (of Ministers) adopted a decree recognising the late Captain Isidore Thomas Noël Sankara as a hero of the nation", the minutes said, transmitted to AFP. "The consecration of the status of hero of the nation" to Thomas Sankara "aims to perpetuate the cardinal values on which the Republic is founded", the government explained. Thomas Sankara, a pan-African icon who came to power in a coup in August 1983, was killed on 15 October 1987 by his number two, Blaise Compaoré. That day, the Burkinabe president was meeting at the headquarters of his National Revolutionary Council (CNR) when a commando of coup soldiers arrived and shot him and his The status of "hero of the nation" was created in June 2022 to honour people who have distinguished themselves by their "exceptional bravery in the defence of a national cause", or their "exceptional and honourable prowess for the nation". After Mr Sankara's death, Blaise Compaoré remained in power until a popular uprising led to his downfall in 2014. In April 2022, after a six-month trial, the military court in Ouagadougou sentenced Mr Compaoré, who lives in Côte d'Ivoire, in absentia to life imprisonment for his role in the liquidation of Thomas Sankara. First buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the bodies of Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions were exhumed on 25 May 2015 for the purposes of legal proceedings before being buried in a memorial erected on the very site of their liquidations. A "national and international ceremony to pay tribute to the victims will be organised on 15 October 2023 to honour their memory", according to the government. The transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has regularly paid tribute to Thomas Sankara since coming to power in a coup on 30 September 2022. Related: Thomas Sankara: 2022-04-25 Attacks on Burkina Faso military units kill 15 Thomas Sankara: 2022-04-07 Former Burkina Faso President, Compaore, Bags Life Sentence Over Murder Of Ex-leader, Thomas Sankara Thomas Sankara: 2014-11-07 Beyond Burkina Faso, Africa's 'Black Spring' hopes may be premature |
| Posted by:Fred |