ECOWAS struck hard following the coup d’état in Mali on August 18 by applying a number of measures. The community body had in fact decided to suspend Mali from all the decision-making bodies of ECOWAS and to close all land and air borders as well as to stop all economic, commercial and financial flows and transactions between countries. members of ECOWAS and Mali. A situation which if it persists would cause more problems than it would solve for this hinterland country.
“If this embargo is maintained, Mali will not survive a week,” informed Alinard Ndiaye, specialist and port manager. “The situation risks being worse than the coup d’état because today 65% of the traffic that serves Mali in terms of goods of all kinds goes through the Autonomous Port of Dakar. The rest of the traffic is shared between the Port of Abidjan and that of Tema. So this closure measure will directly impact the Malian populations ”, he will make known.
“Today we are closing the borders, but imagine the refueling. More than half of Mali’s hydrocarbon supply goes through the Port of Dakar. These are terrible problems, which is why ECOWAS must be flexible ”, he added.
According to Alinard Ndiaye, in fact, ECOWAS must review “Its sanction mechanisms vis-à-vis Mali. A country already plagued by security problems, where the State is lying and which needs support and solidarity from the international community ”
On the Senegal side too, the impact of this sanction against Mali will necessarily be felt.. A volume of 350 to 500 trucks in fact serve Mali in both directions. “It’s fuel that they buy here, taxes that they also pay here in addition to other inputs. This is why in Senegal we must go there with tact, with intelligence, but also with solidarity ”, he said. Finally, he concluded, there is a risk of witnessing a faster progression of the pandemic in Mali, since the country will not be able to cope with the disease in these hospitals for lack of basic equipment. .
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