January 31, (THEWILL) – The African Union (AU), has suspended Burkina Faso, following the January 24 military coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
The AU’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department announced on Twitter on Monday that it had voted “to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities, until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country.”
The announcement came as a delegation from the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that had earlier suspended Burkina Faso, was travelling to Ouagadougou to meet with junta leader Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, just three days after ECOWAS suspended Burkina Faso from its activities.
A special United Nations envoy was also taking part in Monday’s talks.
Earlier, the chair of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, had condemned the coup.
THEWILL recalls that the AU had earlier suspended Mali and Guinea, also in West Africa, over military coups.
The three West African countries have witnessed military coups in the past 18 months, and that have prompted AU suspensions.
Soldiers ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore last Monday after a day of fighting near the presidential palace in Ouagadougou.
The move came amid rising anger among the rank-and-file stemming from the failure to adequately equip them to fight terror groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State since 2015.
The insurgency that spread over Mali’s border has killed more than 2,000 people and forced 1.5 million to flee their homes.
In November 2021, a military base in the north of the country was overrun by terrorists, killing 49 military members.
The coup is the latest bout of turmoil to strike Burkina Faso, a landlocked state that has suffered chronic instability since gaining independence from France in 1960.
The junta suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly and closed the country’s borders immediately after the takeover.
The spate of coups is expected to be a major point of discussion at the AU summit in Addis Ababa this weekend.
