Burkina Faso's former president Blaise Compaoré was sentenced in absentia to life in jail over his role in the 1987 murder of the country's revolutionary folk hero Thomas Sankara, a military court ruled on Wednesday, bringing the curtain down on a case that has tormented the West African nation for more than three decades.
An iconic figure sometimes dubbed the “African Che Guevara”, Sankara was just 33 when he came to power in 1983, setting in motion a revolution that pledged to “decolonise African minds” and continues to inspire followers across the continent.
