Sahel: Mali announces Covid-19 curfew after first case was identified

Posted On 26 March 2020

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1155 issue: week ending 26 Mar. 2020

Bamako, March 25, 2020 – Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a nationwide night-time curfew on Wednesday to limit the spread of coronavirus, but said a parliamentary vote planned for this week will go ahead. In a televised address, Keita said the government will enforce a curfew between 21:00 to 05:00, from  Thursday, and close land borders in response to the virus.  Freight will still be allowed into the West African state, he said, and markets will remain open.

Earlier on Wednesday, Malian authorities recorded the country’s first coronavirus infections, in two nationals who had recently arrived from France. Experts fear the country is particularly exposed to an outbreak because of its jihadist conflict, which first broke out in the north in 2012 and has since engulfed the centre. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict, and swathes of Mali’s territory remain outside state control.

Despite the coronavirus risk, Keita said that a long-delayed parliamentary election — whose first round is planned for Sunday — will go ahead, although in “scrupulous respect” of health measures. “The government will do everything in its power to ensure that this is so,” he said.

Holding parliamentary elections was a key recommendation from crisis talks in December, which aimed at exploring non-military solutions to the country’s worsening violence. Mali’s current crop of MPs was elected in 2013, in a ballot won by Keita’s Rally for Mali party. Parliamentary elections were meant to take place again in late 2018 following Keita’s re-election. But the poll was postponed several times, with the authorities citing a strike by judges or worsening security.

By AFP

Mali declares first coronavirus cases

Bamako, March 25, 2020 (AFP) – Mali announced its first two cases of novel coronavirus on Wednesday, to fears that the war-torn and impoverished West African state will struggle to handle an outbreak. Two Malian nationals who arrived from France in mid-March tested positive for the virus, the government said in a statement on Wednesday, and are receiving medical treatment. The statement added people should “remain calm and  strictly respect the recommended preventive measures”.  There are fears that Mali is at particular risk in the event of an
outbreak, however.
The country has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012, and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.  The conflict has since spread to the centre of the country — and large swathes of the vast semi-arid state lie outside of government control.  All of Mali’s seven neighbouring countries have also declared coronavirus cases.
Other Articles in this Week's Issue<< Sahel: The Norwegians want nothing to do with the crisis in Mali, and they are right!Sahel: Mali opposition leader Soumaila Cisse goes missing >>
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