At about 4:00 in the afternoon on Thursday, 15 October 1987, Thomas Sankara arrived at the Conseil de l’Entente in Ouagadougou for a meeting with members of his special cabinet. He was dressed for the Thursday afternoon exercise programme and had arrived in a black Renault 5.
Inside the building, six members of his cabinet were waiting.
The meeting had barely begun when gunfire erupted outside.
Within minutes, Sankara and twelve other people were dead.
The president of Burkina Faso, the man who had led the country’s revolutionary government for four years, had been killed by armed men who had come to the Conseil de l’Entente. His close friend and former revolutionary ally, Blaise Compaoré, would take power that same day.
For years, the circumstances of Sankara’s death were concealed behind an official account that described his death as natural. His family and supporters continued to demand an investigation. Decades later, an exhumation, forensic examinations, witness testimony and a military trial established the assassination as a deliberate act and led to the conviction of Compaoré, Gilbert Diendéré and Hyacinthe Kafando.
But the story of 15 October 1987 begins before the first shot was fired.
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A Revolution Under Pressure
Thomas Sankara had come to power on 4 August 1983 following a military coup that brought the National Council of the Revolution, known as the CNR, to power.
He was only 33 years old.
The young captain quickly became the face of a radical political transformation. His government promoted mass literacy, vaccination, women’s participation in public life, environmental protection and domestic production. In 1984, the country abandoned its colonial name, Upper Volta, and became Burkina Faso.
Sankara’s government also challenged traditional political and economic privileges and adopted an uncompromising language of national independence and self reliance.
But the revolution had contradictions.
It was led by military officers and operated through revolutionary institutions that did not always tolerate political opposition. The Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, known as the CDRs, were established across the country to mobilise the population, but some members became involved in intimidation and abuses.
The revolution therefore produced both enthusiasm and resistance.
By 1987, divisions within the revolutionary leadership had become increasingly serious.
At the centre of those divisions stood two men who had once been close comrades.
Thomas Sankara was president.
Blaise Compaoré was his principal political and military ally.
Their relationship had been crucial to the revolution of 1983. Four years later, it had become one of its most dangerous fault lines.
Sankara and Compaoré
Compaoré had played a central role in bringing Sankara to power. He was one of the officers who had supported the August 1983 coup and commanded forces from Pô that moved towards Ouagadougou.
For years, the two men appeared politically inseparable.
But their relationship deteriorated as disagreements grew within the revolutionary leadership.
There were disputes over the direction of the revolution, relations between different revolutionary factions and the methods being used to maintain political control. Other senior figures were also caught between the two camps.
By October 1987, rumours of an imminent confrontation circulated in Ouagadougou.
There were also competing claims about what each side intended to do.
Supporters of Compaoré later maintained that Sankara and his allies were preparing to move against Compaoré and his supporters.
Sankara’s supporters, meanwhile, regarded the growing military pressure around him as evidence that a move was being prepared against the president.
The exact chain of decisions immediately preceding the assassination remained disputed for decades.
What is certain is that the political relationship between the two former comrades had reached a breaking point.
The Meeting at the Conseil de l’Entente
On the afternoon of 15 October, Sankara went to the Conseil de l’Entente in Ouagadougou.
The building had become an important centre of the revolutionary government. Sankara had used it as the headquarters of the National Council of the Revolution.
A meeting was scheduled for approximately 4:00 pm.
Among those present were Paulin Babou Bamouni, director of presidential press; Bonaventure Compaoré, a presidential employee; Frédéric Kiemdé, a legal adviser; Adjudant Christophe Saba, secretary permanent of the CNR; Patrice Zagré, a philosophy professor; and Alouna Traoré, a presidential adviser.
Traoré had just returned from Cotonou, Benin, where he had been sent to obtain documentation connected with plans for creating a new political organisation.
He was expected to report on his mission.
Sankara arrived slightly late.
He was wearing a red tracksuit because Thursday was associated with the government’s mass sports activities.
He entered the room.
The meeting began.
Nobody inside the room knew that armed men were already moving against them.
The Gunfire Begins
Alouna Traoré had barely begun speaking when the sound of automatic gunfire erupted outside.
The shooting was coming from armed men who had surrounded the building.
Sankara’s guards were among the first targets.
The situation inside the meeting room immediately changed.
The men understood that this was not ordinary unrest.
The attackers began shouting for those inside to come out.
“Come out. Come out.”
The command was repeated.
The people inside remained in the room.
Then Sankara spoke.
According to Alouna Traoré, he told the others to stay where they were because the attackers wanted him.
Sankara understood that he was the principal target.
He stood up.
Sankara Walks Outside
This is one of the most significant moments in the surviving eyewitness account.
Alouna Traoré later testified that Sankara adjusted his clothing, raised his hands and walked out of the room first.
He did not emerge firing a weapon.
He did not attempt to escape through another door.
He walked towards the armed men with his hands raised.
According to Traoré, Sankara was shot almost immediately after stepping outside.
The testimony of Traoré is especially important because he was the only person inside the meeting room to survive the attack.
His account became a central piece of evidence decades later when the assassination was investigated by Burkina Faso’s military court.
The surviving witness therefore placed Sankara’s final movement as an attempt to confront the attackers without resistance.
The Twelve Who Died With Him
The shooting did not end with Sankara.
The other people inside the meeting were ordered out one after another.
They were killed.
The twelve people who died alongside Sankara were:
Christophe Saba, secretary permanent of the CNR.
Paulin Babou Bamouni, director of presidential press.
Bonaventure Compaoré, a presidential employee.
Frédéric Kiemdé, a presidential legal adviser.
Patrice Zagré, a philosophy professor.
Emmanuel Bationo, a member of Sankara’s security detail.
Abdoulaye Gouem, a member of the security detail.
Wallilaye Ouédraogo, a soldier.
Hamado Sawadogo, a member of the security detail.
Noufou Sawadogo, a soldier.
Der Somda, Sankara’s driver.
Paténéma Soré, a gendarme who had come to the area to deliver correspondence.
Thirteen people in total were killed that day.
Sankara was one of them.
Traoré was the only person inside the meeting who survived. He later recalled lying among the bodies after the shooting in order to remain alive.
The Version That Sankara Fired First
For many years, another version of the killing circulated.
According to accounts associated with the Compaoré camp, Sankara and his supporters had been preparing an attack against Blaise Compaoré and his allies. The argument was that the soldiers who moved against Sankara had acted because they believed an attack was imminent.
Some later accounts described the operation as an attempt to arrest Sankara that turned into a shooting.
Gilbert Diendéré, a senior military officer who was closely associated with Compaoré, gave an account in which Sankara was said to have been armed and to have fired first.
That version conflicts with the testimony of Alouna Traoré, who said Sankara left the room with his hands raised and was immediately shot.
The competing accounts became part of the long controversy surrounding the assassination.
The later judicial proceedings were significant because the court did not treat Sankara’s death as an accidental firefight. The prosecution and the court instead established criminal responsibility for an organised assassination.
The historical record therefore supports the conclusion that Sankara was deliberately killed, even though every detail of the command structure and the decisions made immediately before the attack has not been reconstructed beyond dispute.
The Radio Announcement
After the shooting, confusion spread through Ouagadougou.
The national radio interrupted its normal programming and broadcast military music.
Then, between approximately 7:00 and 8:00 pm, a military spokesman announced the dissolution of the National Council of the Revolution.
A new political organisation, the Popular Front, was declared.
Its leader was Blaise Compaoré.
The announcement effectively confirmed that political power had changed hands.
The revolution had not simply lost its president.
It had lost its direction.
The Bodies Were Buried
The thirteen bodies were taken away and buried at Dagnoën cemetery in Ouagadougou.
The burials took place rapidly, during the night following the assassination.
There was no transparent public investigation into how Sankara had died.
Instead, the new authorities moved quickly to consolidate power.
A death certificate later issued for Sankara stated that he had died of natural causes.
The document became one of the most notorious elements of the case because it bore no resemblance to the circumstances of his death.
Sankara had been shot.
His body had been buried.
Yet the official paperwork described a natural death.
For his family, this was not the end of the matter.
It was the beginning of a decades long struggle for truth and justice.
Blaise Compaoré Takes Power
The man who emerged from the crisis as Burkina Faso’s new ruler was Blaise Compaoré.
He presented the change as a correction of the revolution rather than its complete abandonment.
The new government described the period that followed as a process of “rectification”.
But the political and economic direction of Burkina Faso changed.
Many of the most radical policies associated with Sankara were abandoned or modified. The country became more politically stable under Compaoré in some respects, but his government also became increasingly authoritarian.
Compaoré remained president for 27 years.
The man who had helped Sankara seize power in 1983 now governed the country from which Sankara had been removed by force.
The Long Silence
For years, the assassination remained one of Burkina Faso’s most painful unresolved questions.
Mariam Sankara, Thomas Sankara’s widow, continued to demand an investigation.
Families of the other victims also sought answers.
The absence of a credible investigation meant that important questions remained unanswered.
Who ordered the operation?
Who authorised the soldiers to move against Sankara?
What was the precise chain of command?
What role did senior military officers play?
Was the assassination planned in advance?
What did Compaoré know before the shooting?
And were foreign governments involved?
The questions became part of Burkina Faso’s political history.
But answers did not come while Compaoré remained in power.
The Fall of Compaoré Changes the Case
The political situation changed dramatically in 2014.
After 27 years in power, Blaise Compaoré was forced from office following a mass uprising against his attempt to extend his rule.
The political change reopened space for investigations into crimes associated with his government.
The Sankara case was reopened.
In 2015, the remains believed to belong to Sankara and the twelve other victims were exhumed for forensic examination.
The exhumation transformed the case.
The bodies could finally be examined using modern forensic methods.
The physical evidence confirmed that Sankara had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
The forensic investigation also provided evidence concerning the ammunition and weapons used in the killings.
The long buried evidence could now be examined alongside witness testimony and documentary records.
The Trial Begins
The military trial of those accused in the assassination began in Ouagadougou in October 2021, almost exactly 34 years after Sankara’s death.
The proceedings brought together witnesses, former military personnel, investigators and relatives of the victims.
Alouna Traoré’s testimony was particularly important.
He described the meeting, the sudden gunfire, the attackers’ orders for the occupants to come outside and Sankara’s decision to leave the room first.
His testimony provided a direct account from the only surviving participant in the meeting.
The court also examined evidence concerning the military operation and the roles of the accused.
The proceedings lasted several months.
Then, on 6 April 2022, the verdict was delivered.
Justice After Thirty Four Years
The military court convicted three of the most important defendants.
Blaise Compaoré was sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the assassination and other offences.
Gilbert Diendéré was also sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the assassination and other offences.
Hyacinthe Kafando, a former member of Compaoré’s security apparatus, was sentenced to life imprisonment for assassination and other offences.
Compaoré and Kafando were tried in absentia.
The verdict represented a major turning point in the history of the case.
For the first time, a court formally established criminal responsibility for Sankara’s assassination.
The verdict did not answer every question surrounding the political conspiracy. It did, however, establish that Sankara’s death was an assassination rather than a natural death or an unexplained accident.
The Question of Foreign Involvement
The assassination has also been surrounded by claims concerning possible foreign involvement.
Sankara’s government had pursued an outspoken anti imperialist foreign policy and had challenged aspects of France’s influence in Africa. He also maintained relations with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, while Blaise Compaoré had close relationships with several regional political figures.
French diplomatic records from the period reveal that French officials closely followed political developments in Burkina Faso. Some archival documents also recorded concerns about Sankara’s political direction and his regional influence.
Documents concerning the period have since been declassified.
However, foreign involvement in the political environment surrounding Sankara should not automatically be presented as proof that a foreign government ordered his assassination.
The criminal case that resulted in convictions in Burkina Faso established responsibility among Burkinabè actors.
Questions about the possible role of foreign governments remain part of the wider historical investigation, but they should not be confused with what the court established.
What 15 October Changed
The assassination brought an abrupt end to Burkina Faso’s revolutionary period under Sankara.
The man who had renamed the country Burkina Faso, promoted mass mobilisation and attempted to build a more self reliant state was gone.
Blaise Compaoré’s government would govern for decades.
But Sankara’s political influence did not disappear with him.
His speeches continued to circulate.
His ideas about African sovereignty continued to attract young people.
His policies on women’s rights, public health, literacy, environmental protection and national production continued to shape discussions about the possibilities and limitations of African development.
His image travelled far beyond Burkina Faso.
The young captain who had governed for only four years became a symbol whose influence outlived the government that had killed him.
Sankara’s Legacy
Sankara’s legacy is larger than the circumstances of his death.
He remains one of the most recognisable African leaders of the twentieth century, particularly among young Africans interested in political independence, social justice and economic self determination.
Yet his historical record also contains difficult questions.
His government restricted political opposition. Revolutionary institutions sometimes used coercion. His administration’s determination to transform society rapidly could also become authoritarian.
Remembering Sankara therefore requires remembering both the achievements and the contradictions of the revolution he led.
His assassination, however, belongs to a different category.
Whatever disagreements existed within the revolutionary government, Sankara did not die in an ordinary political contest.
He was shot during an armed assault on the place where he was meeting his advisers.
Twelve others were killed alongside him.
Their bodies were hurriedly buried.
The official explanation concealed the circumstances of the deaths.
It took more than three decades before a court formally established criminal responsibility.
From Forbidden Memory to National Memorial
The transformation of Sankara’s memory in Burkina Faso has been striking.
For decades, his name remained politically sensitive.
After the fall of Compaoré, however, Sankara’s public commemoration became increasingly prominent.
In October 2023, the government formally recognised him as a Hero of the Nation.
The same year, Ouagadougou’s Boulevard Charles de Gaulle was renamed Boulevard Thomas Sankara.
The process of institutional remembrance continued.
On 17 May 2025, the Mausoleum of Thomas Sankara and his twelve companions was inaugurated in Ouagadougou.
The site commemorates the thirteen people who died on 15 October 1987 and forms part of the Thomas Sankara Memorial.
The transformation is remarkable.
The same state that once issued a death certificate describing Sankara’s death as natural now officially honours him as a national hero.
The man whose death was once surrounded by silence now has a memorial dedicated to him and the people who died with him.
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The Day That Changed Burkina Faso
At the Conseil de l’Entente on 15 October 1987, a political crisis became a killing.
Thomas Sankara arrived for a meeting.
Six colleagues were waiting.
Alouna Traoré began to speak.
Gunfire erupted.
The guards outside were killed.
The attackers ordered those inside to come out.
Sankara rose and, according to the surviving eyewitness, walked out with his hands raised.
He was shot.
The others were killed.
Traoré survived by lying among the dead.
By nightfall, the National Council of the Revolution had been dissolved and Blaise Compaoré had taken control of the country.
That sequence changed Burkina Faso permanently.
Sankara’s government was over.
His political vision was no longer in control of the state.
But the killing did not end his historical influence.
Instead, it created a legacy that continued to grow across generations.
More than three decades later, a court would convict those it found responsible for the assassination.
The graves would be opened.
The evidence would be examined.
The false story of a natural death would finally be overturned.
And the thirteen people who died at the Conseil de l’Entente would return to the centre of Burkina Faso’s national memory.
Thomas Sankara was killed on 15 October 1987.
His revolution ended that day.
His place in African history did not.
Author’s Note
The story of 15 October 1987 is ultimately a story of a revolution cut short, thirteen lives lost in a violent political confrontation, and a truth that took decades to emerge. Thomas Sankara entered the Conseil de l’Entente that afternoon for a political meeting and never came out alive. He and twelve others were killed, Blaise Compaoré took power, and the circumstances of the deaths were concealed for years. The later investigation, exhumation, witness testimony and military trial transformed the historical record and brought legal accountability to some of the principal figures connected to the assassination. Sankara’s death ended his presidency, but it did not end the questions surrounding his ideas or the meaning of his revolution. Today, his recognition as a national hero and the memorial built for him and his twelve companions stand as reminders that political power can suppress a story for a time, but it cannot necessarily erase it from history.
References
RFI, Qui a fait tuer Sankara ? Le jour où Thomas Sankara est tombé.
RFI, Qui a fait tuer Sankara ? A Ouagadougou, sur les traces d’un assassinat.
RFI, Qui a fait tuer Sankara ? Sankara et ses ennemis : ce que disent les archives.
RFI, Il était une fois… Thomas Sankara.
Lefaso.net, Procès Sankara : « Je ne saurais attribuer ma survie à un homme », déclare Traoré Alouna, seul témoin survivant des événements du 15 octobre 1987.
Lefaso.net, Procès Thomas Sankara et douze autres : Le témoin Daouda Traoré raconte sa version des faits.
Lefaso.net, Procès « Thomas Sankara et douze autres » : Selon un témoin, Salif Diallo et Abderrahmane Zétiyenga ont fouillé le bureau de Sankara après sa mort.
Lefaso.net, Victimes du 15 octobre 1987 : Les confidences d’une veuve ordinaire.
Presidency of Burkina Faso, Le Capitaine Thomas Sankara, désormais Héros de la Nation.
Presidency of Burkina Faso, Le Boulevard Charles de Gaulle devient Boulevard Thomas Sankara.
Presidency of Burkina Faso, Inauguration du Mausolée Thomas Sankara et ses 12 compagnons.
