The African Union has suspended Burkina Faso from participating in the activities of the pan-African organization until constitutional order is restored in the country.
The decision by the 55-member AU was announced on Monday, January 31, in a tweet from the Peace and Security Council.
After the January 24, 2022 coup against President Roch Marc Christian Kabore overthrown by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) meeting on Monday “decided to suspend Burkina Faso from all participation in all activities of the African Union until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country,” the message reads.
African Union Chairman, Moussa Faki Mahatma said he was following with “concern the very serious situation in Burkina Faso.”
He urged the army to “strictly adhere to their republican vocation, namely the defense of the country’s internal and external security.”
The organization, which is in the middle of reform, will be led from February by Senegal’s Macky Sall, who will assume the rotating presidency for one year, taking over from DR Congo’s Felix Antoine Tshilombo Tshisekedi, who assumed the chairmanship since February 2021.
Created on July 9, 2002 in Durban, South Africa, to take over from its forerunner the Organization of African Unity (OAU, 1963-1999), the AU aims to be part of the vision of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, led by its own citizens.”
Previously, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which has 15 member states, decided at an extraordinary summit of heads of state on Friday, January 28, by videoconference, to suspend Burkina Faso from its membership, after Mali and Guinea.
CD/fss/as/APA