Malians rushed to stock up on petrol and cash after the 15-state ECOWAS West African bloc launched trade and diplomatic sanctions aimed at forcing the leaders of last month’s coup to stand down.
Long one of the most stable democracies in West Africa, Mali has plunged into turmoil since the widely condemned power grab on March 22 further emboldened Tuareg rebels to seize half the country in their quest for a northern homeland.
They have been joined by Islamists bent on imposing sharia, Islamic law, across the whole of the moderate Muslim state, now the latest security headache for a region battling al Qaeda cells and home-grown militant groups such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram.
An emergency ECOWAS summit on Monday gave the coup leaders 48 hours to quit power – a Wednesday deadline the junta did not even acknowledge in a statement delivered from the ramshackle barracks outside the capital Bamako that are its headquarters.
“We are inviting the political class and all civil society representatives to be present without exception at a national convention that will start on Thursday, April 5,” junta leader Captain Amadou Sanogo told a news conference.
The convention, first announced on Sunday, is due to decide on what form the transition to civilian rule will take.
“The conclusions of this convention will be accepted by everyone,” said Sanogo, without giving any further details of the organisation or timetable of the convention.
Sanogo and his team of mid-ranking officers have been condemned by the U.N. Security Council and on Tuesday faced new isolation as the African Union announced travel bans and asset freezes on them, echoing existing ECOWAS measures.
Ivory Coast, from where the landlocked country sources much of its fuel, was among the first to close its borders on Tuesday as part of sanctions including the freeze of Malian funds at the central bank of the West African franc currency zone.
“Our bosses told us to let nothing go in or come out without orders from the top … We’ve started patrolling to stop all movement of goods,” border guard Ben Casaban said by telephone from the border point by the town of Pogo.
Guinea followed suit but others acted more slowly. Authorities in Burkina Faso said they were preparing steps needed to close the border with Mali, while border officials in Mauritania and Senegal said they were still awaiting orders.
FUEL AND CASH
At garages in central Bamako, residents armed with jerry cans queued to try to beat shortages that could choke off the economy of Africa’s third-largest gold miner within days.
The National Office for Petroleum Products (ONAP) said existing national stocks would last about 10 days.
While one banking source said the financial sanctions did not yet cover commercial bank transactions with the BCEAO regional bank, many Malians began queuing to take out their savings for fear that funds would dry up soon.
“I’m here to withdraw my bursary money,” Cisse Yacouba, a 25-year-old student, said. “Everyone is rushing to get some money because it is certain that there will not be enough.”