The African Union on Monday suspended Burkina Faso a week after the volatile country suffered its latest coup, as diplomats from West Africa and the UN began talks with the new junta.
The AU’s 15-member Peace and Security Council said on Twitter it had voted “to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country”.
The move came three days after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Burkina from its ranks and warned of possible sanctions pending the outcome of meetings with the junta.
An ECOWAS mission headed by Ghanaian Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway arrived in Ouagadougou, where it was joined by the UN’s special representative for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mahamat Saleh Annadif.
They arrived at the presidential palace at 1 pm (1300 GMT), an AFP journalist saw.
“The joint delegation will have meetings with the military leaders as well as with the various Burkinabe actors,” UNOWAS said in a statement earlier.
On Saturday, ECOWAS sent military chiefs to confer with junta leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
The junta “reaffirmed its commitment to sub-regional and international organisations,” it said in a statement.
ECOWAS leaders will hold a summit in Accra on Thursday to assess its two missions to see whether they should impose sanctions.
They have previously suspended and enforced sanctions against two other members — Mali and Guinea — which have also seen military overthrows in the past 18 months.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, who chairs the AU’s Commission, had already condemned the coup on the day it happened.