The authorities in Burkina Faso recently announced that they are formally charging Gilbert Diendéré, the notorious former commander of the secret services of the Blaise Compaoré regime, the Regiment of Presidential Security (RSP), with the murder of Thomas Sankara in 1987. The murder charges relating to Sankara’s death are in addition to the charges that he faces in relation to the defeated right-wing coup that he launched in September. The bringing of this central figure involved in Sankara’s murder to justice represents an important gain for the revolution which broke out in October 2014.

Over the last few days, the events in Burkina Faso have been moving at lightning speed. Just weeks before elections were due to be held, the most reactionary wing of the regime, the Presidential Protection Regiment (RSP), overthrew the transitional government in a coup. This has interrupted the country’s so-called transitional period and it has thrown the regime into complete chaos.

Burkina Faso’s Presidential Protection Regiment (RSP) has carried out an overnight coup in the capital Ouagadougou.

The revolutionary overthrow of Blaise Compaoré on 31 October 2014 was a fundamental turning point for Burkina Faso. It brought an entire country to its feet. It released pressures which have been accumulating for decades. After being under the jackboot of the Compaoré counterrevolution for 27 years, the masses of the “Land of the Upright People” have dramatically entered the stage of history. The transitional government which filled the gap left by Compaoré’s departure has been a regime of turmoil and crises. At bottom, this is as a result of pressures from the mass movement. Now, after months of turmoil, the ruling class is desperately trying to channel the situation into some kind of bourgeois democratic order. But the elections, scheduled for 11 October, will change nothing fundamental for the masses. It will only serve as a new stage for the struggle.

The situation in Burkina Faso has been moving at lightning speed since the revolution erupted on Thursday, 30 October. Not only did the revolutionary masses overthrew the hated Blaise Compaoré, but also his hand-picked successor, general Honoré Traoré, just a few hours later. Since then the regime has been reeling. Meanwhile, the military tops, some reactionary elements within the opposition and the major imperialist powers have been scrambling to hatch some kind of a deal to pacify the masses and restore some sort of bourgeois normality.

The West African country of Burkina Faso exploded into a full blown revolutionary situation on Thursday, October 30, with tens of thousands of people storming the parliament and other government buildings, setting them ablaze, ransacking government offices and sending politicians, including long serving president Blaise Compaoré fleeing.