A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States arrived in Burkina Faso on Saturday, a security source said, one day after it suspended the country over the region’s latest coup.

Rebel soldiers seized Burkina president Roch Marc Christian Kabore on Monday amid rising public anger at his failure to stem jihadist violence ravaging the impoverished nation.

It marked the third military coup in a West African country in just 18 months.

The security source told AFP that the ECOWAS delegation arrived in Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou on Saturday morning.

“They are already in a closed-door working session. No statement is planned,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

The delegation is composed of representatives from Benin, Togo and Ghana, and is led by ECOWAS peace and security commissioner Francis Behanzin of Benin, it added.

The delegation would “evaluate the situation before the arrival of another mission next week,” the source said.

Ministerial-level ECOWAS envoys are expected to arrive in the Burkina Faso capital on Monday.

It was not possible to immediately confirm whether the delegation would meet with junta leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

The once 15-nation ECOWAS had already suspended two other members — Guinea and Mali — after recent military coups.

On Friday it also suspended Burkina Faso, demanding the release of Kabore, who is being held under house arrest by the army, as well as other detained officials.

West African leaders will meet for a summit on February 3 in Ghana’s capital Accra to assess the outcome of the Burkina missions and to decide whether it should impose sanctions as it has done in Mali and Guinea.

The president of the ECOWAS Commission, Ivorian politician Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, told AFP that the situation in Mali and Guinea will also be discussed at the February summit.

He said ECOWAS’ response to coups has “always been very firm and very coherent — it’s zero tolerance.”

Damiba has only spoken once since seizing power, in a televised address on Thursday in which he asked for help from Burkina Faso’s “international partners”.

The coup is the latest bout of turmoil to strike Burkina Faso, a landlocked state that has suffered chronic instability since gaining independence from France in 1960.

A jihadist insurgency that spread over Mali’s border has killed more than 2,000 and forced 1.5 million to flee their homes since 2015.

FalseProphet1:
I see the coupist giving the ECOWAS delegation a warm welcome but the will never hand over to civilian rule.

This I have seen.

Bruno531:
I hope they will resolve the whole issue. Since the masses prefer miltary rule, they should allow them to be for now till they return to civilian rule

FalseProphet1:
I see the coupist giving the ECOWAS delegation a warm welcome but they will never hand over to civilian rule.

This I have seen.

FalseProphet1:
I see the coupist giving the ECOWAS delegation a warm welcome but they will never hand over to civilian rule.

This I have seen.

planetx:
Another sit tight leader in the making just like Mali and Guinea after discovering how sweet power is. They will just be deceiving their people with endless transition like IBB while consolidating their grip on power. The last coup plotter in Burkina Faso stayed in power for 27 years before a mass revolt by the people chased him out, laughing at those people trooping out to welcome coups and Nlanders praying for coup in Nigeria, I give them max 2 years after the coup before their eyes clear.

FalseProphet1:
I see the coupist giving the ECOWAS delegation a warm welcome but they will never hand over to civilian rule.

This I have seen.