Rabat – The African Union (AU) is suspending Guinea from all AU activities and decision-making bodies, following the coup d’etat led by the military in the West African country.
In a statement issued this Friday, September 10, the AU announced that “the Peace and Security Council decided to suspend the Republic of Guinea from all activities and decision-making bodies of the AU.”
The decision is in response to the Guinean special forces who seized control of the country on September 5, and detained the Guinean president, who has been showing hostility for his perceived authoritarianism.
The AU, based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is also asking the UN Security Council to endorse the final ECOWAS communique,” an action it supports.
On Wednesday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) announced the suspension of Guinea and decided to dispatch a diplomatic mission to the country to assess the situation, however, it did not impose any economic sanctions.
Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry announced the regional block’s suspension this Wednesday, September 8. Leaders of the 15-nation bloc held a virtual meeting aimed at discussing the coup waged by elite troops led by the 41-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.
The bloc also demanded Conde’s release from custody.
The African Union now joins a number of institutions and governments that strongly condemn the coup in Guinea, calling for the release of the captured president.
Guinean special forces led by Doumbouya, announced Sunday that they had captured the head of state to put an end to “financial mismanagement, poverty and endemic corruption” and “the instrumentalization of justice (and) the trampling of citizens’ rights.”
The junta then announced it is dissolving the government along with its institutions, in addition to abolishing the constitution.
The constitution itself was a controversial issue in the West African country. Conde had adopted the country’s constitution in 2020, and heavily depended on it to run for a third term that same year, despite months of deadly protests.
