This makes it the third member nation to be punished for a military takeover in only 18 months. The suspension was imposed in reaction to the country’s recent coup.

The announcement on Friday by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comes several days after mutinous soldiers forced democratically elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to resign.

ECOWAS is also calling for the new junta to release ousted president Roch Marc Christian Kabore and other officials detained during Monday’s coup.

The news came following reports that gunshots were heard around the President’s residence in the capital of Ouagadougou on Sunday night.

According to the source, the bloc would hold another summit in Accra on February 3.

The summit, which lasted around three hours, also decided to send a mission of ECOWAS chiefs of staff to Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe capital, on Saturday.

This will be followed on Monday by ministerial-level envoys from the bloc, the source said.

Kabore, 64, was elected in 2015 following a popular revolt that forced out strongman Blaise Compaore.

He was re-elected in 2020, but the following year faced a wave of anger over the mounting toll from a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighboring Mali.

On Sunday, mutinies broke out in several barracks and the following day, Kabore was arrested and taken away by troops.

The impoverished Sahel state is being run by a junta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who commands military units in the country’s jihadist-torn east.

On the eve of the summit, Damiba made a televised appeal for “the international community to support our country so it can exit this crisis as soon as possible.”

He promised Burkina would “return to a normal constitutional life… when the conditions are right.”

Burkina Faso joins two other ECOWAS countries — Mali and Guinea — where there have been coups in the past 18 months.