By Paul Ejime*
The ECOWAS emergency virtual summit ended on Friday with the suspension of Burkina Faso’s membership over Monday’s military coup that toppled the government of elected President Christian Kabore.
Officials of the regional body also said that another extraordinary summit will take place next Thursday in Accra, Ghana to decide the next line of action.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the ECOWAS Committee of Defence Chiefs of Staff will visit Burkina Faso tomorrow Saturday, to be followed by a ministerial delegation’s visit on Monday for talks with the Lt-Col Paul-Henri Damiba-led junta, ahead of the in-person Summit on Thursday.
ECOWAS and the international community have condemned the coup in Burkina Faso and demanded the return to constitutional order and unconditional release of detained Kabore.
Burkina Faso has joined Mali and Guinea as member states suspended by ECOWAS over military takeovers in the last 18 months.
The regional body has also imposed targeted sanctions on the Guinea junta leaders and an unprecedented blockade against Mali after the coup leaders there changed the transition timetable.
But the sanctions would seem to have had no effects in stopping military incursions into politics in the restive region, which is reeling under insecurity, bad governance, corruption and tenure elongation by leaders.
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