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Denis Sassou N’Guesso sworn in for another term in Republic of Congo, extending 42-year rule

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo (AP) — Denis Sassou N’Guesso was sworn in Thursday to a new five-year term as the Republic of Congo’s president in a ceremony in a packed stadium.

The inauguration took place in Kintélé, a town north of the capital city of Brazzaville.

Sassou N’Guesso was reelected in March with 94.8% of the vote, extending his 42-year rule over the oil-rich Central African country. He ran against six relatively unknown candidates.

In his inaugural speech, he said he would not “betray the people who mobilized to honor him and reaffirm their support.”

The Central African country is struggling with a sky-high debt-to-GDP ratio – which measures a country’s debt compared to its economic output – according to the World Bank, and climbing youth unemployment.

Sassou N’Guesso is the third-longest ruling African leader, after Cameroon ’s Paul Biya and Equatorial Guinea ’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. A 2015 referendum removed presidential age limits and term limits, allowing Sassou N’Guesso to remain eligible for office.

How Voodoo overcame suppression and became a democratic force in the West African nation of Benin

OUIDAH, Benin (AP) — Democracy came to the cradle of Voodoo religion in 1991, when Benin’s military dictator of many years surprisingly lost an election that he had organized. Mathieu Kérékou had amassed power partly by banning the practice of so-called sorcerers, whose authority he deemed subversive to his own. Voodooists would have the last laugh. The opposition figure who defeated Kérékou, Nicéphore Soglo, rehabilitated Voodoo, or Vodún as it is known in Benin, as part of national heritage and emphasized the kind of tolerance that Kérékou would try to emulate when he successfully sought reelection in 1996. Two decades and three presidents later, this West African nation is a bastion of democracy in a region dubbed “the coup belt” for the trend since 2020 of military takeovers. President Romuald Wadagni was inaugurated on May 24 to replace Patrice Talon, who stepped down after serving two terms.
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