Burkina Faso’s transitional government decided on Wednesday to elevate former president and father of the Burkinabe revolution Thomas Sankara, killed on 15 October 1987 in a putsch, to the rank of “hero of the nation”.

“The Council (of Ministers) adopted a decree recognising the late Captain Isidore Thomas Noël Sankara as a hero of the nation”, the minutes said, transmitted to AFP.

“The consecration of the status of hero of the nation” to Thomas Sankara “aims to perpetuate the cardinal values on which the Republic is founded”, the government explained.

Thomas Sankara, a pan-African icon who came to power in a coup in August 1983, was killed on 15 October 1987 by his number two, Blaise Compaoré.

That day, the Burkinabe president was meeting at the headquarters of his National Revolutionary Council (CNR) when a commando of coup soldiers arrived and shot him and his companions dead.

The status of “hero of the nation” was created in June 2022 to honour people who have distinguished themselves by their “exceptional bravery in the defence of a national cause”, or their “exceptional and honourable prowess for the nation”.

After Mr Sankara’s death, Blaise Compaoré remained in power until a popular uprising led to his downfall in 2014.

In April 2022, after a six-month trial, the military court in Ouagadougou sentenced Mr Compaoré, who lives in Côte d’Ivoire, in absentia to life imprisonment for his role in the assassination of Thomas Sankara.