ACCRA, January 9 (Reuters) – The countries of the Economic Community of West African States (Cdao) will close their borders with Mali, sever diplomatic relations and impose severe economic sanctions because of the delay judged ” unacceptable “in the holding of new elections in this country since the coup d’état of 2020, the regional bloc announced on Sunday.
These new sanctions follow the decision of the Malian transitional authorities to postpone the organization of democratic elections to December 2025 instead of February 2022 as initially planned.
In a statement released after an emergency summit in Accra, Ghana, the Cdao stressed that the new schedule was totally unacceptable.
This timetable “simply means that an illegitimate transitional military government will take the Malian people hostage,” writes the organization.
The new sanctions package against Mali takes immediate effect, Cdao said. It includes in particular a closure of the borders of the organization’s countries with Mali, the suspension of non-essential financial transactions, the freezing of the Malian state’s assets in the commercial banks of the Cdao and the recall of their ambassadors from Bamako.
The West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) at the same time called on all financial institutions under its leadership to suspend Mali with immediate effect, thus cutting off the country from access to regional financial markets.
The Malian authorities, who blamed the delay in the transition to democracy on the violence of the Islamist insurgency, did not react immediately. (Report Christian Akorlie; French version Claude Chendjou)