UPDATE: LIBERIA’S PRESIDENT BOAKAI ‘OKAY’ AFTER HEAT CURTAILS INAUGURATION CEREMONY

January 22, 2024

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According to a spokesman for his party, Joseph Boakai, the newly elected president of Liberia, has recovered from the heat-induced dizziness that forced him to end his inauguration speech on Monday before being carried off the platform.

The 79-year-old, who defeated George Weah in a runoff election in November, was sworn in during an outdoor ceremony in sweltering heat in the west African nation’s capital, Monrovia.

Boakai then paused during his speech, and aides rushed to fan him. He resumed a few minutes later but halted again, and aides helped him walk away from the podium, curtailing the ceremony.

“It is the heat. The heat was high. They should have had some fan or something around there,” Mohammed Ali, the spokesperson for Boakai’s ruling Unity party, said after the incident.

“At his age, the exhaustion happened. But it is OK now,” he said at the event.

Meanwhile, during the election campaign, a few of Boakai’s rivals voiced worries about his age and level of energy, but his team waved the accusations.

Boakai was helped out of the inaugural event, but not before he had taken the oath of office. Even yet, authorities went forward with the scheduled meal, though it was unclear where Boakai was at the time.