PARIS (Reuters) – Air France on Monday suspended all of its flights to Bamako, in application of the embargo decreed on Sunday by the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against Mali, an airline spokesperson said.
“Air France is monitoring the situation in real time and will inform its customers of any changes in its flight program to and from Bamako”, the company specifies on its website.
The ECOWAS countries announced on Sunday the closure of their borders with Mali, the severing of their diplomatic relations and the establishment of severe economic sanctions, including a land and air embargo, due to the delay deemed “unacceptable” in the new elections have been held in this country since the 2020 coup.
These new sanctions, decided at an emergency summit in Accra, Ghana, followed the decision of the Malian transitional authorities to postpone the organization of democratic elections to December 2025 instead of February 2022, as initially. foreseen.
France and its European allies, working for years to secure Mali, denounced for their part last month the rapprochement between the junta in power in Bamako and Russia, and more particularly the group of Russian mercenaries Wagner, seen as a means for the putschist military to remain in power at all costs.
(Written by Tangi Salaün, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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