Malians welcome ECOWAS’s return to reason

#Mali : After several months of economic and financial sanctions which only served to show the allegiance of certain West African countries to France, ECOWAS has finally come to its senses by lifting them.

West African leaders lifted in Accra the trade and financial sanctions that had weighed on Mali for more than five months. However, the individual sanctions and the non-participation of the country in the various bodies of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are maintained.

The overwhelming majority of Malians welcomed with relief, on Sunday, July 3, 2022, the lifting of the economic and financial sanctions of ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) which had been taken against Mali since last January.

The lifting of these sanctions relieves the people of Mali. During these months of sanctions, it was the populations, but also the traders, who paid a heavy price. Because apart from basic necessities, several products did not enter the country because of the closing of the borders.

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Our interlocutors believe that Malians should learn a good lesson from these sanctions. For others, the high cost of living in Mali is not due solely to sanctions, but rather to the political and security crisis that has plagued the country since 2012. They believe that traders have taken advantage of this crisis to increase their excessive margins, which is the cause of inflation. They also called on them not to make this crisis a source of enrichment on the backs of citizens.