The African Union (AU) announced on Monday that it has suspended Burkina Faso's membership in response to the 24 January coup that ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. The 15-nation bloc's Peace and Security Council said it voted "in favour of suspending Burkina Faso's participation in all AU activities until constitutional order is effectively restored in the country." "Burkina Faso was suspended on Friday from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), along with two other countries which have recently witnessed a military coup — Guinea and Mali," said a statement by the AU. A delegation of foreign ministers from the ECOWAS is expected to arrive to the country's capital, Ouagadougou, this week to meet with members of the junta. The ECOWAS will hold a new summit on 3 February in Accra, in the presence of the Heads of State of the region, with a view to assessing the situation again in that country. On 24 January, the military in Burkina Faso seized power and placed President Roch Marc Christian Kapuri under house arrest. The coup comes on top of the turmoil in Burkina Faso, a country that has suffered chronic instability since its independence from France in 1960. Violence attributed to extremist groups that have infiltrated the country's borders from Mali has killed more than 2,000 people and forced 1.5m to flee their homes since 2015.
