RABAT— The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decided to suspend Guinea following a recent coup against President Alpha Conde.

West Africa bloc ECOWAS has decided to suspend Guinea following a recent coup in the country, Burkinabe Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said Wednesday after a virtual crisis summit.

The suspension came after Guinean special forces, led by Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, had seized power and arrested president Conde.

The regional bloc, in a statement following a virtual meeting Wednesday evening, voiced extreme concern over the political developments that followed the military coup in Guinea on Sept. 5.

The bloc's leaders strongly condemned the coup and demanded a return to the constitutional order and the immediate release of Conde. The ECOWAS leaders also agreed to send a high-level mission to Guinea as soon as possible.

The bloc will also send a mediation mission to Guinea on Thursday, Barry told reporters in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou.

Conde had come under increasing fire for perceived authoritarianism. The 83-year-old became the first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015.

But last year, he pushed through a new constitution that allowed him to run for a third term in October 2020.

The move sparked mass demonstrations in which dozens of protesters were killed. Conde won the election but the political opposition maintained that the poll was a sham.

Regional bloc ECOWAS convened an extraordinary virtual summit to discuss the turmoil in Guinea on Wednesday.

Afterwards, Burkinabe Foreign Minister Alpha Barry said that ECOWAS would also request that the Africa Union and United Nations endorse its decision to suspend Guinea.

The putsch has sparked fears of democratic backsliding across the region, where military strongman are an increasingly familiar sight. In Guinea's neighbor Mali, strongman Col. Assimi Goita has launched two coups since last August. — Agencies