WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is suspending at least $13 million of its roughly
$140 million in annual aid to Mali following last month’s coup in the West African nation, the State Department said on
Wednesday.
aid to Mali
The suspension affects U.S. assistance
for Mali’s ministry of health, public school construction and the government’s efforts to boost agricultural
production.
The United States, which sees Mali as an important partner in regional efforts to combat Islamic
extremism, has warned that Mali’s political crisis was putting the territorial integrity of the country at risk.
U.S.
law bars aid “to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or
decree.”
The United States announced the suspension of some aid to Mali a day after calling again on coup leaders to
immediately return power to civilian authorities.
“The rest of the assistance will continue but anything that was
directly going into the government programs and ministries has to be suspended,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told
reporters.
Once one of the most stable democracies in West Africa, Mali has been in turmoil since the widely condemned
March 22 coup that 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, making it
the latest security concern in a region battling al Qaeda agents and home-grown militant groups such as Nigeria’s Boko
Haram.
Mali’s military rulers on Wednesday postponed a national convention to end a crisis sparked by the coup, which
has led to international isolation and allowed the rebels to seize control of the northern half of the country.