The Malian government, suffocated by sanctions from West African states, has recorded several defaults on the regional financial market since the end of January, according to UMOA-titres, which manages operations on the markets of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).
Since January 31, the UMOA-Titres has published five investor notices indicating that Mali has "not been able to settle its financial obligations on the public securities market (MTP) ." The total amount of unpaid debts is 53 billion CFA francs, or 81 million euros.
"It should be noted that this payment incident occurs in a context where the State of Mali is subject to sanctions taken against it by the conference of Heads of State and Government of the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ," UMOA-titres indicated in its latest note on Friday.
UMOA-titres is the agency for the management and promotion of public securities in the UEMOA zone, which includes the eight West African countries using the CFA franc as their currency ( Ivory Coast , Senegal , Togo , Burkina Faso , Mali , Guinea-Bissau , Niger and Benin ).
On February 2, the Malian government announced that it had not repaid payments related to two bond issues on the WAEMU financial market, amounting to more than 2.6 billion FCFA, "because of the restrictions" .
Mali "has always honored its commitments on the financial market (and) wishes to reassure investors of its willingness and ability to meet its commitments ," added a statement from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
On January 9, ECOWAS and UEMOA took a series of vigorous economic and diplomatic measures against Mali to sanction the junta's intention to remain in power for several more years, after two coups in August 2020 and May 2021.
They suspended, with immediate effect, all commercial and financial transactions between member states and Mali, except for consumer goods and basic necessities.
They also froze Mali's assets in ECOWAS central banks and in member state commercial banks, and suspended all aid and financial transactions in favor of Mali from the organization's financing institutions.
