Burkina Faso marked the 39th anniversary of the assassination of Captain Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions on Thursday, October 15. They were killed on October 15, 1987. The national ceremony was led by Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo, who represented the head of state, Captain Ibrahim Traoré.
Unity was at the heart of the speech read on the president’s behalf. Sankara, he recalled, did not fall to the enemy he openly fought, but to people close to him who wore the same uniform and had taken the same oath. From that tragedy, Traoré drew a lesson for the present day: a revolution dies above all from the infighting of those meant to protect it. He also warned against slander and the spread of suspicion. According to him, the Burkina Faso of 2026 bears little resemblance to that of 1987, pointing to the large rally held on September 30 to celebrate four years of the “Progressive Popular Revolution.”
The best way to honour the victims, the president argued, is to carry on their fight rather than mourn them. That struggle continues on the front line, in the fields and factories, in classrooms, and also in the media and on social networks. He paid tribute to the Defence and Security Forces and to the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland. Echoing one of Sankara’s best known principles, he urged citizens to consume what they produce and produce what they consume. He closed by calling for four kinds of sovereignty: security, food, economic and monetary, and cultural.
The speech also gave an update on the Thomas Sankara Memorial, which opened to the public on May 19, 2025. By September 30, 2026, it had received more than 200,000 visitors. Ticket sales brought in about 130 million CFA francs, which have been reinvested in building the site’s infrastructure. The president encouraged Burkinabè to join the “A Brick for Sankara” campaign. He also thanked the third district of Rome, which recently named a park after Sankara.
Thomas Sankara led Burkina Faso from 1983 until 1987. He was killed during the coup that brought Blaise Compaoré to power.