The Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) has suspended Burkina Faso following a military coup in that country.
ECOWAS also called for the new junta to release ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and other officials detained during Monday’s coup.
The summit, which lasted about three hours, also decided to send a mission of its chiefs of staff to Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe capital, tomorrow, January 29 on fact finding mission.
It will be followed on Monday by ministerial level envoys from the bloc.
The 64 years old Kabore was elected in 2015 following a popular revolt that forced out the country’s strongman, Blaise Compaore.
He was re-elected in 2020, but the following year faced a wave of anger over the mounting toll from a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali.
On Sunday, mutinies broke out in several barracks and the following day, Kabore was arrested and taken away by troops.
The impoverished Sahel state is being run by a junta led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who commands military units in the country’s jihadist-torn east.
On the eve of the summit, Damiba made a televised appeal for “the international community to support our country so it can exit this crisis as soon as possible.”
He promised that Burkina would “return to a normal constitutional life… when the conditions are right.”
Burkina Faso joins two other ECOWAS countries, Mali and Guinea, where there have been coups in the past 18 months.
Those two countries have been suspended by the regional ECOWAS, which has also imposed an array of sanctions on them, including measures against individuals.
