The West African main regional bloc, ECOWAS, on Wednesday suspended Guinea’s membership, over a military coup that ousted President Alpha Conde, reported Africa News. The announcement was made by Burkinabe Foreign Minister Alpha Barry after a virtual crisis summit.
The leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have demanded a return to the constitutional order and the immediate release of President Conde, who was arrested by Special Forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya on Sunday.
The West African bloc has decided to send a high-level mediation mission to Guinea on Thursday.
“At the end of that mission, ECOWAS should be able to re-examine its position,” Barry, Burkina Faso’s foreign minister, told reporters in Ouagadougou after the meeting.
The move follows the forceful ousting of President Conde by rebel military leaders who blamed him for perceived authoritarianism. The 83-year-old was the first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015.
But last year, he made an amendment to Guinea’s constitution that allowed him to run for a third term in October 2020. His decision to seek a third term sparked mass demonstrations in the country in which dozens of protesters were killed. Conde won the election but the political opposition maintained that the poll was not fair but a sham.
After Sunday’s ousting, the regional bloc ECOWAS convened an extraordinary virtual summit on Wednesday to discuss the turmoil in Guinea.
Barry said that ECOWAS would also request that the United Nations and the African Union endorse its decision to suspend Guinea.
Guinea’s coup leader Doumbouya has pledged to install a unified, transitional government but has not said when or how that will happen.
Elsewhere in the region, In Guinea’s neighbor Mali, strongman Colonel Assimi Goita has launched two coups since last August. The first coup was in August 2020 and the second in May this year. ECOWAS condemned the coups and temporarily imposed sanctions.
