Foreign ministers from Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso are in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Abeba, ahead of an African Union conference, to plead for their countries' re-admission.
After military coups, all three nations were expelled from the African Union and the regional grouping Ecowas.
The suspensions, according to Mali's foreign ministry, are impeding the ambition of all three Sahel countries to return to a civilian administration.
The ministers will not be able to attend the summit, but they have met with foreign ministers from the conference's hosts, Ethiopia, and the Comoros Islands, which now hold the AU chair.