at the Sankara trial, a member of the commando tells the details of the assassination

First of the defendants to speak before the military tribunal in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, which tries the alleged killers of “Father of the Burkinabe revolution” Thomas Sankara in 1987, a soldier admitted Tuesday, October 26 the facts of“Attack on state security” and recounted the details of the assassination.

This soldier, Yamba Elisée Ilboudo, recounted that on October 15, 1987, the day of the coup d’état during which Thomas Sankara and twelve of his companions were killed, he was “At the home of Blaise Compaoré”, brought to power by the putsch.

It is at M. Compaoré’s place that “Hyacinthe Kafando, who commanded us as head of security, asked me to start a vehicle to go to the Council of the Entente”, the seat of the National Revolutionary Council where the killing took place, he said.

Arrived on site, Hyacinthe Kafando and “Maïga, who was driving Blaise Compaoré’s vehicle, got out and fired in disorder”, said at the bar the first class soldier, now 62 years old, without indicating the first name of the latter.

“Hands in the air and unarmed”

Whoever claims to have remained in his vehicle, without firing, then recounts the details of the assassination. After the first shots he saw Thomas Sankara “Leave the meeting room, hands in the air, ask what’s going on”.

“It was Hyacinthe Kafando and Maïga who crossed paths with him. I don’t know who shot President Sankara first. He fell on his knees before tipping over to the left side ”, he added.

He acknowledged the facts of “Complicity in attack on state security”, but denied the premeditation, assuring not to have participated in a preparatory meeting for these events. “I did not know that we were going to carry out a coup d’etat, all the more so to take someone’s life”, did he declare.

“They coldly shot President Sankara who came out with his hands in the air and unarmed”, for his part declared M^e Ferdinand Nzapa, the lawyer for the Sankara family, believing that it was the “The only accused to be very cooperative”.

Before the start of the interrogation, the court listened to audio and video files dating from 1987 in which Blaise Compaoré justifies the events of October 15, resulting, according to him, from “Fundamental differences that have arisen over the past year on operational questions of the revolutionary process”.

“Need for rectification”

In one of the files, Blaise Compaoré, who took part in the 1983 coup d’état that brought Thomas Sankara to power, of whom he was a close friend, presents him as a “Traitor to the revolution which led an autocratic power” and ” staff “. “The other comrades had decided to dismiss him” or force him to ” to resign “, he adds, justifying the “Need for rectification”.

Right arm of Thomas Sankara, Blaise Compaoré has always denied having ordered the assassination. Twelve of the fourteen accused are present, including General Gilbert Diendéré, 61, one of the main army chiefs during the 1987 putsch.

But Blaise Compaoré, who lives in Côte d’Ivoire, is absent, as is former chief warrant officer Hyacinthe Kafando, on the run. Blaise Compaoré, ousted from power in 2014 by the street, is accused of “Complicity in assassinations”, of “Concealment of corpses” and D’“Attack on state security”.

On Tuesday, the court granted a request from defense lawyers, demanding the release of the defendants who had been imprisoned two days before the start of the trial. Eleven of them will benefit from this provisional freedom. Only General Diendéré is kept in detention because he is already serving a twenty-year prison sentence for an attempted coup in 2015.