Newly-elected Liberian president, Joseph Boakai, on Monday suffered what is suspected to be heat stroke while reading his acceptance speech at his inauguration.
Boakai was quickly rushed out of the podium and the inauguration came to an abrupt end.
Boakai was helped out of the podium by his security details.
Mr Boakai had been speaking for around 30 minutes at his inauguration when it became clear that he was having difficulty continuing.
He had already been sworn in as Liberia’s oldest-ever president at the ceremony held outside the Capitol Building, the seat of parliament in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
The temperature had reached more than 30C in the sweltering humid conditions.
Video footage from the ceremony had shown a man fanning Mr Boakai’s face, before he was taken away.
“His doctors have declared him perfectly fine,” Charles Snetter from the president’s office later said in a statement.
A party official added that the president was not taken to hospital. “The president is normal, and he’s doing well,” the official Amos Tweh said.
Before he was forced to cut short his speech the new president pledged to rescue all Liberians from the tough economic times, address corruption and improve basic services.
Mr Boakai was vice-president in Nobel Peace Prize-winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s government until 2018, and had contested the presidency under the banner of the United Party (UP).
He defeated ex-President George Weah by just over 20,000 votes in the run-off election.
Mr Boakai also ran for the presidency in 2017, but lost to Mr Weah, who became Liberia’s young-ever elected president.
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