The West African bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has suspended Burkina Faso from its governing board on Friday.
This is coming as an aftermath of mutinous soldiers who forced democratically elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to resign.
This makes Burkina Faso the third member nation after Mali and Guinea to be punished for a military takeover in only 18 months.
On Monday, the soldiers went on state television to announce their military takeover of the country, which they said was under siege from armed groups. The military rulers said Kabore failed to stop the violence that led to the death of thousands of their citizens.
At the meeting where African leaders met virtually on Friday to discuss the Burkina Faso coup, it was stated that a delegation was expected to travel to the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, in the coming days.
Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the current ECOWAS chairman, called the recent spate of coups in West Africa “a direct violation of our democratic tenets. The rest of the world is looking up to us to be firm on this matter.”
The leaders are scheduled to meet next on February 3 in Accra, Ghana.
