Halouné Traoré, a former comrade of pan-African icon and Burkina Faso ex-president Thomas Sankara, explains how he was the only one to survive the 1987 coup where Sankara was assassinated, along with 12 others. 34 years on, the perpetrators are finally scheduled to be tried open Monday in Ouagadougou.
Traoré hopes that at the trial “the truth finally gets told” about Sankara’s assassination but accepts will not be able to restore “the dreams for Burkina”.
“The major expectation I have is that the truth finally gets told, the truth that a man, a group of men, and particularly President Thomas Sankara was murdered for loving his country. If the trial could allow us to establish this truth…”
Former President Blaise Compaore has long denied suspicions he organised the murder of his former comrade-in-arms — but throughout his long years in power, Sankara’s death was always taboo.
