By AFP
The African Union announced it was suspending Mali with immediate effect and threatened the impoverished country with sanctions, after a second military coup in nine months.
The coup has sparked deep concerns over stability in the volatile Sahel region and warnings of economic penalties from across the international community.
The AU “decides… to immediately suspend the Republic of Mali from participation in all activities of the African Union, its organs and institutions, until normal constitutional order has been restored in the country”, the body’s Peace and Security Council said in a statement late Tuesday.
The move follows a similar suspension on Sunday from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
In its statement, the AU called for the military to “urgently and unconditionally return to the barracks, and to refrain from further interference in the political processes in Mali”.
It warned that if the military did not hand back power to civilian transitional leaders, “the Council will not hesitate to impose targeted sanctions and other punitive measures”.
Condemning the coup “in the strongest terms possible”, it added it was “deeply concerned about the evolving situation in Mali and its negative impact on the gains made thus far in the transition process in the country”.
Strongman Colonel Assimi Goita was at the ECOWAS crisis summit in Ghana on Sunday to argue the military’s case but has now returned to Mali.
Goita last August led army officers who overthrew elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, following mass protests over perceived corruption and a bloody jihadist insurgency.
