Yahya Jammeh Wished To Meet Captain Thomas Sankara

 President Yahya Jammeh then an officer of the Gendarmerie wished to meet Captain Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. This was revealed by Sankara’s former Foreign Policy Adviser Fidèle Kientega. In a conversation with Bubacarr Sankanu, Mr. Kientega explained how in 1986 during an official mission to Senegal he met Yahya Jammeh in Hotel Terranga in the company of Senegalese security officials were Jammeh expressed his wish. He also explained how his childhood friend Blaisé Campaore with the backing of France and Houphoute Boigny of Ivory Coast betrayed Thomas Sankara.

The insightful conversation shed light into, among others, the campaign to destroy Sankara’s legacy, the problems of political leadership in Africa, the impacts of Sankara’s four-year rule in and out of Burkina Faso, the initiative to revive his ideals and the efforts of Sankara’s widow, Mariam Sankara, in seeking justice for her husband through the UN Human Rights Council which ruled in her favour by asking President Campaore to explain the mystery of the Palace Coup of October 15, 1987 in which Sankara was assassinated and hurriedly buried. Campaore, who is also implicated in Charles Taylor’s Blood Diamond indictment in nine thousand (9000) of the 36,000 page UN report, refuses to cooperate and instead offered Madame Sankara millions of Franc CFA for her to forget the case. Madame Sankara categorically rejected the bribe saying not everybody lives for money.

Mr. Kientega was in Germany to attend the film festival organised by Bubacarr Sankanu and his associates at filminitiativ.de and the Ghana Union Koeln to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of Sankara’s death and Ghana’s Golden Jubilee. We shall bring you the full exclusive in our subsequent editions.