Burkina Faso: ECOWAS leaders call for immediate release of ousted President Kabore, others

ECOWAS Leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday at an emergency virtual meeting called for the immediate release of the ousted Burkinabe President, Roch Marc Kabore.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a mutiny, led by Burkina Faso’s new military leader, Lt.-Col. Paul-Henri Damiba, ousted President Kabore on Monday.

The junta, who called themselves the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR), blamed the detained ousted president for failing to contain worsening violence by Islamist militants.

Speaking to State House correspondents on the outcome of the emergency ECOWAS meeting, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, said the West African leaders condemned the coup.

He said they also demanded the immediate process of return to constitutional order.

Onyeama further disclosed that the leaders had authorised their Chiefs of Defence Staff to visit Burkina Faso with a view to assessing the situation in the troubled country.

He said: ”Well, the position is, of course, we condemn the coup and asking for an immediate return to constitutional order, the release of the President and anybody else who’s being detained and to cooperate with ECOWAS and to be part of ECOWAS decisions.

”A decision that the Chiefs of Defense Staff of ECOWAS Member States should head on Saturday to Burkina Faso to assess the situation from a strategic military angle.

”This will be followed immediately by a visit of a team of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of ECOWAS countries, again, to assess the situation and then report to a meeting of the Heads of States, and then a definitive decision will be taken as to how to proceed.”

ECOWAS had already imposed sanctions on Mali and Guinea following military takeovers in Aug. 2020 and Sept. 2021, respectively.