ECOWAS Suspends Guinea After Coup, Says It Will Send Mediators
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), 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 West Africa’s main regional bloc 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.
Doumbouya, Guinea’s coup leader, has pledged to install a unified, transitional government but has not said when or how that will happen.
In an apparent gesture to Conde’s civilian opponents, at least 80 political prisoners were released on Tuesday evening, many of whom had campaigned against the constitutional change.
Doumbouya also met the heads of Guinea’s various military branches for the first time on Tuesday, hoping to unify the country’s armed forces under the coup makers’ command.
