- In an extraordinary summit held in Ghana on January 9 to review and discuss the Mali situation, ECOWAS has decided to close borders with Mali and impose economic sanctions.
- This is over and above the financial and travel sanctions imposed already on the members of Mali’s military government.
In an extraordinary summit held in Ghana on January 9 to review and discuss the Mali situation, ECOWAS has decided to close borders with Mali and impose economic sanctions. This is over and above the financial and travel sanctions imposed already on the members of Mali’s military government. The sanctions include the closure of members’ land and air borders with Mali, the suspension of non-essential financial transactions, and the freezing of Malian state assets in ECOWAS central and commercial banks.
It is hoped that ECOWAS and Mali’s transitional leaders will to come to an agreement on a future presidential election date – sooner than the military’s proposed 2026 elections. Ecowas is pressurising the military government to hold elections latest February 27 as initially planned. It has also threatened to suspend Mali from the Economic Community of West African States if the current military regime fails to hold the elections and transfer power to the democratically elected government by February 27, 2022. The suspension from the trading bloc would take immediate effect at the end of February if the country does not hold elections.
A suspension from ECOWAS will have devastating repercussions for Mali, a country with 42.1 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. Its exports of livestock and food products, among other things, to its West African neighbours will suffer from rigid trade barriers, taxes, and tariffs in the borders. Similarly, the flow of goods into the country from the 15-nation trading bloc will stop which will lead to cost escalation of local products. Without the free movement of goods and people, the country will face unemployment and loss of business.
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