ECOWAS suspends Guinea after coup

GUINEA

West Africa’s main regional bloc has suspended Guinea’s membership, days after a military coup that removed President Alpha Conde.

During an extraordinary virtual summit on Wednesday, leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded a return to the constitutional order and the immediate release of Conde, who was arrested by special forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya on

Sunday. The ECOWAS leaders also agreed to send a high-level mission to Guinea as soon as Thursday.

“At the end of that mission, ECOWAS should be able to re-examine its position,” Alpha Barry, Burkina Faso’s foreign minister, told reporters in Ouagadougou after the meeting.

The bloc’s decision comes after the coup sparked broad diplomatic condemnation, but was also met jubilation in some parts of the capital,

Conakry, where residents turned out on the streets to applaud passing soldiers.

The 83-year-old became the first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015. But last year, Conde pushed through a constitutional change to allow himself to run for a third term, a move his opponents said was illegal. Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara also won a third term last year after changing his country’s constitution.