Members of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended Mali Sunday in response to the recent coup d’etat.

Assimi Goïta headed a military coup against former president Bah Ndaw last week. Ndaw resigned on May 26, and the Constitutional Court of Mali declared Goïta the interim president of Mali two days later. Ndaw and other former leaders are currently under house arrest.

ECOWAS is a trading bloc composed of 15 nations in West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’ Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo. The nations called an emergency summit to discuss the situation in Mali and were joined by representatives from the African Union, the EU and the UN.

After their summit, the coalition agreed to suspend Mali from ECOWAS institutions like the West African Health Organization and the Community Court of Justice. The group also demanded that a civilian head of state be nominated as soon as possible and agreed that the previously scheduled presidential elections on February 27, 2022, should proceed. According to ECOWAS, Goïta “should not, under any circumstances, be [a candidate] for the forthcoming Presidential election.”

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, former President of Nigeria, will serve as a mediator to Mali during the transition to a civilian government. The coalition’s international collaborators have pledged to “continue to support Mali towards the successful implementation of the transition.”

The current coup comes just nine months after Goïta, acting as leader of the rebel group National Committee for the Salvation of the People, led a movement to oust then-president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.