By Sarjo Brito
Heads of State from the sub-regional bloc ECOWAS will be convening in Ghana on Thursday, February 3rd, 2022, to discuss the current political situation in Burkina Faso. This meeting comes following an announcement from the military junta that it has restored the Constitution and appointed coup leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba as interim president.
‘’The Heads of State held an Extraordinary Summit virtually on January 28, 2022, after the January 24, 2022, coup d’état in the country. After the Summit, the Authority deployed immediately a high-level mission of the ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff to hold consultations with the Military Leaders’’
‘’After which a Joint Ministerial Mission led by the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers was also deployed to assess the political situation in the country and submit their report to the Authority of Heads of State. During the Extraordinary Summit, the Heads of State will be considering and discussing reports from these high-level missions’’
The subregion has witnessed a wave of coups in recent months. The most recent of which was in Guinea-Bissau where one was believed to be underway on Tuesday, February 1st, 2022. Widely circulated videos on socials media showed what seemed to be heavy exchange of gunfire around the Presidential Palace. The Guineans leader Umaru Cissoko Embalo later appeared on national television where he told Guineans that the deadly coup attempt was thwarted but said many members of the security forces had been killed repelling the attack.
