Iconic West African leader Sankara reburied in Burkina Faso

By SAM MEDNICK and ARSENE KABORE
Associated Press

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso’s late revolutionary leader has been reburied eight years after his body was exhumed as part of an investigation. Thomas Sankara and 12 others were gunned down in the capital, Ouagadougou, during a 1987 coup and buried hastily. The bodies were dug up in 2015 after the ousting of President Blaise Compaore, who was tried in absentia and convicted of complicity in the murders last year.  Sankara, a charismatic Marxist leader, came to power in 1983 after he and Compaore led a leftist coup that overthrew a moderate military faction. In 1987, Compaore seized power in a coup and then ruled the country with an iron fist until he was ousted in an uprising.