Blaise Compaore for arrest over murder of Thomas Sankara in B’Faso

BURKINA Faso has issued an international warrant for ousted leader Blaise Compaore for his suspected role in the 1987 killing of his former comrade, late President Thomas Sankara.

AFP referred to a judicial source who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying that Compaore, who is living in exile in Ivory Coast, had been charged with an “attack” and “assassination”.

Compaore was toppled from power by a popular uprising in October 2014 after ruling Burkina Faso with an iron fist for 27 years.

Sankara, a revolutionary figure who is still a hero to many in Africa, was killed on October 15, 1987, during the coup that brought his friend and former comrade-in-arms Compaore to power.

On Monday, a police lab helping investigate the killing of the iconic former president reported that the “state of the remains” made it impossible to detect any DNA, according to a lawyer for the Sankara family.

It had been hoped that DNA tests could confirm that the remains were indeed those of Sankara, whose death certificate stated that he died of “natural causes”.
“We can simply say that in view of these results, the state of the remains did not permit the laboratory to certify the existence of DNA,” said family lawyer Benewende Stanislas Sankara, who is of no relation to the revolutionary hero.

The supposed remains of the 37-year-old former army captain, along with those of 12 former aides also killed during the 1987 coup, were exhumed from a cemetery in the capital Ouagadougou in May.

A laboratory in the southern French city of Marseille performed testing on the remains, which according to autopsy results released in October were “riddled with bullets”.

The family’s lawyer said the DNA tests had been carried out at the request of the Sankaras, who now have two weeks to decide whether to seek additional testing or analysis from different experts.