A Pan-African icon’s killers brought to justice – 35 years later

A former African president living in gilded exile, a notorious hit man on the run, and an army general serving time for his role in a failed coup. 

These were among the 11 men found guilty last week of assassinating President Thomas Sankara, a firebrand Marxist revolutionary whose brutal murder sent shock waves across Africa, and had remained unsolved for 35 years. 

Now, activists believe the rare trial – and successful prosecution – over the assassination of an African president could pave the way for accountability in a region where coups are making a comeback, with three in the past year. 

“This is a strong message to all those dictators across Africa who kill with impunity,” says Fatie Souratié, an activist in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. “This trial is very important for the history of our nation and for future generations. From now on, when we talk about our hero, we can finally say that the executioners have been punished.”

Mr. Sankara’s name has become synonymous with Pan-Africanism, after the charismatic officer took power in August 1983 and instituted sweeping policies that transformed the landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso.

His fiercely anti-colonialist and anti-corruption rhetoric was backed by policies aimed at lifting his people out of poverty, and fueled Pan-African pride. But Mr. Sankara’s four-year tenure ended in a hail of bullets outside his office, as a hit squad gunned him down along with 12 of his colleagues.  

On April 6, a military tribunal in Ouagadougou handed down life sentences to three of the key players among the 14 men accused of planning, covering up, and carrying out the assassination of the man known as Africa’s Che Guevara, as well as undermining state security. 

An important example

Those convicted included Blaise Compaoré, who seized power following the murder of Mr. Sankara, once his close friend. Mr. Compaoré then ruled for 27 years before fleeing to neighboring Ivory Coast after he himself was overthrown in a popular uprising in October 2014. He was sentenced in absentia, and his lawyers have called the trial “illegitimate.”

The case, which gripped the nation of 20 million citizens over six months, raked over much of Burkina Faso’s recent history. One of the main defendants, Hyacinthe Kafando, a notorious former security aide who is believed have led the hit squad, has been on the run since 2015.

Sophie Garcia/AP

Mariam Sankara, wife of President Thomas Sankara, who was assassinated in 1987 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, leaves the military court after the verdict in the trial for his murder, April 6, 2022.

Gilbert Diendéré, the former head of Mr. Compaoré’s presidential guard, was already serving a 20-year prison sentence for a failed coup in 2015. And in January, proceedings were suspended as Burkina Faso was convulsed by a military takeover – its sixth since gaining independence from France in 1960.

The implications of the verdict could reverberate across a continent where political violence is still far from unusual. Few high-ranking African officials have faced trials for their most egregious crimes, and the rare convictions that have been meted out have typically come from internationally backed special courts at home, or courts abroad. More often, though, perpetrators have benefited from their use of political violence.

In neighboring Liberia, the presence of former rebel warlords in the Legislature is a lingering reminder of the conflict that gripped the nation for 14 years until a peace accord in 2003. 

“If Burkina Faso can look back and address a wrong, it’s an important example for Liberia that is yet to hold anyone accountable for ... killings committed in the past,” says Aaron Weah, a Liberian Ph.D. researcher based at the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University in Northern Ireland.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was found guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes by a special United Nations court in The Hague in 2011, and sentenced to 50 years in jail. But there is so little political will to hold a trial on home ground that justice advocates have instead reached out to prosecutors in Europe and the United States to pursue cases. 

In March, Laye Sekou Karama, an accused former Liberian commander, was arrested in New York for allegedly lying on his immigration forms about his involvement in a rebel movement. Mr. Kamara could become the fourth Liberian to be prosecuted in an American court on charges of lying on immigration documents. Meanwhile other cases are underway in France, Belgium, and Finland. 

Budding homegrown justice

But in recent years there has been a concerted effort by some African judicial systems to try the perpetrators of political violence on home soil. 

In Rwanda, special courts known as gacaca – from the Kinyarwanda word meaning “grass,” where communities gather to resolve disputes – were set up to try crimes committed during its devastating genocide. While the main perpetrators were tried in neighboring Tanzania, village elders tried to adjudicate cases in rural areas, where victims and perpetrators still live side by side.

The tribunals left behind a mixed legacy, revealing the enormous challenge of trying to apply Western-style punitive legal systems in states where those aren’t the norm.

Mr. Sankara’s verdict, though, could renew hope for trials that often appear to have little chance of success. “There is an empowering feeling when you see people like [Mr. Sankara’s wife] Mariam Sankara and others succeed,” says Reed Brody, of the International Commission of Jurists. “It shows that justice is possible.”

And the scope of that justice is slowly expanding, too. Mr. Brody himself represented victims of Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad, who was found guilty by an international tribunal in Senegal of rape, sexual slavery, and the execution of 40,000 people. The trial was heralded as “a milestone for justice in Africa” because it was the first that involved the trial of one African leader in another African country. 

The recent prosecutions of ex-presidents could also bolster justice advocates in places like Gambia, where a truth and reconciliation commission is investigating charges against former dictator Yaya Jammeh. Now in exile in Equatorial Guinea, he ruled over the tiny West African state with an iron first for 22 years, before losing elections in 2017. 

Never easy

For now, though, any efforts at justice will face enormous odds.

Mr. Sankara’s trial saw 100 witnesses testify, and was 27 years in the making, according to Ferdinand Nzepa, a France-based lawyer who played a lead role in the team that represented the Sankara family. “We fought hard, and we couldn’t imagine there would be a trial at the end,” Mr. Nzepa said.

A separate investigation is underway into possible foreign involvement in Mr. Sankara’s assassination. He was hostile to U.S. and French Cold War economic policy, and U.S. diplomatic cables have emerged showing that U.S. officials considered overthrowing him.

The verdict is not yet set in stone. Later this month, lawyers for the convicted men are expected to return to the heavily guarded, conference hall-turned-courtroom to appeal last week’s verdicts. 

Paul Sankara, the brother of the assassinated leader, hopes the sentences will stand. “Some would say it was a severe verdict, but no – nothing can make up for his assassination,” he says. “I think it was a just verdict.”