ECOWAS Suspends Burkina Faso For Military Coup

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has suspended Burkina Faso following a military coup that occurred in the country on Monday.

The suspension was approved on Friday, in a virtual meeting attended by West African heads of state.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana’s president and ECOWAS chairman, said that coups in the region is “a direct violation of our democratic tenets”.

After three military coups in three years (Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso), Akufo-Addo admitted that the international community is currently monitoring the resolve of the regional bloc.

“The rest of the world is looking up to us to be firm on this matter,” he said.

Recall that Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, who led the Burkina Faso’s military junta, accused its President, Christian Kabore, of failing to secure the country.

That view has not been accepted by either ECOWAS or the United Nations.

The ECOWAS leaders are expected to send delegation to Burkina Faso in coming days with the intention of urging the coup plotters to return to the barracks.