The West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, has suspended Burkina Faso in the aftermath of a military coup, making it the third member nation to be punished for a military takeover in only 18 months.

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.

The bloc will hold another summit in Accra on February 3, it added.

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.