Yamba Elysée Ilboudo, a 62-year-old former driver and presidential bodyguard, sat behind a wooden dock that framed his small form. An illiterate soldier who started and ended his military career as a private, Ilboudo is among 14 men accused of participating in the assassination of President Thomas Sankara—a celebrated pan-Africanist and Marxist political leader—and 12 other men more than 34 years ago.
On October 26 and 27 in a courtroom in Burkina Faso’s capital, Iboudo was the prosecution’s first witness. Ahead of him, steps ascended to the red-robed judge, the military jurors, and the state prosecutors, and behind him were lines of black-robed lawyers and an audience that stretched out to the edges of the wood-paneled room. Ilboudo wore a gray shirt and loose-fitting slacks. From my seat, all I could see was the back of his shaved head as he was questioned about what he did on October 15, 1987.
“Present!” Ilboudo snapped like a soldier during a drill, each time his name was announced.
Iboudo claimed that he drove four armed men to the government building where Sankara was gunned down. He heard the shots but didn’t see who fired them. When asked if he saw Gen. Gilbert Diendéré, a senior military official at the time, he faltered and often said it was “complicated” or difficult to remember. The audience laughed at his baffled manner and short responses.
— source thenation.com | Clair MacDougall | Nov 24, 2021