The man who assassinated Thomas Sankara was his childhood friend.
His name is Blaise Compaoré.
Blaise Compaoré and Thomas Sankara grew up together and lived together.
Blaise Compaoré was raised by Thomas Sankara’s father. They lived like brothers.
Blaise Compaoré and Thomas Sankara joined the Burkina Faso army together.
When Sankara became President of Burkina Faso, he made Blaise Compaoré his Vice President.
Little did Sankara know his childhood friend and brother would later kill him.
Five days before Compaoré assassinated Sankara, they both had an event where they danced and drank together.
Sankara was briefed by the country’s Intelligence Unit about Compaoré’s plans to assassinate him.
As someone he grew up together with, Sankara dismissed the possibility that his childhood friend and brother would do much to him.
Sankara was reluctant to go after his friend. He could not believe it.
October 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara was assassinated in a coup led by his childhood friend, the man he grew up together with, the man he loved, the man he took as his brother — Blaise Compaoré.
Sankara was shot eleven times in the chest, and four times in the head by Compaoré’s men.
Shortly after the coup, Sankara's father asked Compaoré "where is your brother, Thomas". He couldn't answer.
Blaise Compaoré became the President of Burkina Faso shortly after he had killed Sankara.
He reverted many of Sankara's Pan-African policies. He continued relations with France and rejoined the IMF.
He is currently living in Ivory Coast. He never paid for his crimes.
