Liberia’s President Suffers ‘Heat Stroke’ After Taking Oath

The inauguration of Liberia’s new president Joseph Boakai, who succeeds former football star George Weah, was on Monday marked by the 79-year-old leader’s brief spell of exhaustion as a result of soaring temperatures, his party’s secretary general said.

Boakai, whose age and health are the source of concern in the West African country, had to pause and sit down to finish his address in front of the parliament in Monrovia, where foreign delegations and local officials had gathered.

“Heat exhaustion contributed to the few minutes of disruption in his speech but the speech ended successfully and the president was advised by his doctors to come home as a result of that,” Amos Tweh, secretary general of Boakai’s party, said.

“The president was not taken to the hospital. Everything went okay, the president is normal, and he’s doing well. The president has resumed his normal presidential duties,” he further stated.

Political veteran Boakai beat former Ballon d’Or winner Weah in November’s run-off poll, with 50.64 percent of the vote to 49.36 percent.