By Bate Felix and Adama Diarra
BAMAKO (Reuters) –
Mali’s junta ignored a demand by neighbours for an immediate exit from power on Tuesday, instead simply repeating its offer
to hold open-ended talks on a future transition to civilian rule.
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.”
The African Union also announced targeted
sanctions on the leaders of the factions fighting in the north.
Over 200,000 Malians have fled their homes because of
the fighting, and the pillaging of food, fuel and medical supplies in Gao and other northern towns has worsened their
plight.
In Paris, world culture agency UNESCO appealed to warring factions to spare local heritage sites such as
Timbuktu’s earthen mosques, cemeteries and other legacies of its “golden era” in the 16th century.