West African mediators head to Burkina Faso following coup

By SAM MEDNICK and ARSENE KABORE
Associated Press

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Mediators from the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS are heading to Burkina Faso in the aftermath of the nation’s second coup this year. The delegation going to the capital Ouagadougou includes the former President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou. Burkina Faso’s former interim leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba agreed to resign Sunday and left the country for the neighboring nation of Togo. Other elements of the military already had declared late Friday on state television that he was no longer in charge of the country. The junta said Sunday their new leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, is now officially Burkina Faso’s head of state.