ECOWAS condemns Burkina Faso military coup | Tellwell Newspaper
Tellwell Newspaper, Abuja – Nigeria:
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has strongly condemned the military putsch in Burkina Faso, warning it risks derailing the country’s return to democratic governance.
In a statement obtained by Tellwell Newspaper, the 15-member regional bloc blasted the coup d’etat as capable of throwing spanner into the transition timetable for the restoration of constitutional democracy in the country.
“The Economic Community of West African States strongly condemns the seizure of power…this Friday, September 30, 2022,” ECOWAS said in the statement it issued a day after a group of soldiers took over power from the country’s Transitional military government.
ECOWAS said it found the coup inopportune, at a time when progress had already been made through diplomacy and the bloc’s efforts for the methodical return of constitutional order by July 1, 2024.
“ECOWAS reaffirms its unreserved opposition against any power grab by unconstitutional means and demands scrupulous respect of the timetable already adopted with the Transitional authourities for the rapid return of constitutional order no later than 1st July 2024,” the statement reads.
The sub-continental body warned any institution, force or group of persons whose actions would prevent the planned return of constitutional order or contribute to undermining peace and stability of Burkina Faso and the sub-region as it continued to monitor developments in the Western African country.
On Friday Burkina Faso army Captain Ibrahim Traore announced the ouster of the country’s military leader Paul-Henri Damiba and dissolution of the government as well as the suspension of the constitution and transitional charter.
Traore said the coup, staged by a group of soldiers, was necessitated by Damiba’s inability to deal with a worsening Islamist insurgency by al Qaeda and the Islamic State that has gripped the country.
Damiba had seized power in a January coup which ousted the elected leader Roch Marc Christian Kabore, pledging to tackle the jihadist insurgency and return the country to democracy in two years.
However, the violence has escalated, with more than 40 percent of the landlocked former French colony outside government control.
