West African countries have imposed sanctions on Mali, where coup leaders are vowing to restore civilian rule but so far remain in power.
Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, decided Monday to implement the diplomatic and financial sanctions with immediate effect.
The heads of state met in Senegal's capital, Dakar, after the end of a 72-hour deadline for Mali's military junta chiefs to restore constitutional order.
On Sunday, coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo said the constitution and all state institutions had been restored but gave no timetable for elections.
The Tuareg Uprising
- Tuaregs are an ethnically Berber, nomadic people in West Africa's Sahel and Sahara regions.
- Tuareg fighters have staged multiple uprisings in Mali and Niger for greater autonomy.
- Current Mali rebellion began in January after Tuareg fighters returned from Libya, where they fought for Moammar Gadhafi.
- The conflict has driven about 100,000 Malians to neighboring countries, internally displaced more than 90,000.
- Losses to Tuaregs prompted soldiers' coup in Bamako Thursday March 22.
Source:Encyclopedia Brittanica, ICRC, France 24
According to a VOA correspondent at Monday's talks, ECOWAS said the junta's statement is a step in the right direction, but wants to see concrete action.
ECOWAS also called on Tuareg rebels in Mali's north to stop their advance. The rebels have seized three key towns since soldiers seized power from President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22.
The sanctions against Mali include a suspension from ECOWAS, freezing the assets of coup leaders and closing the borders between Mali and member states.
On Sunday, Captain Sanogo pledged coup leaders will work to organize a democratic vote, and will not run in the elections.
"We will leave conditions for a good transition to preserve national unity, we will engage, under the eyes of mediators, in consultations with all the actors of society in the context of a national convention in order to put in place a transitional body with the aim of organizing calm, free, transparent and democratic elections in which we will not participate," said Sanogo.
Mali had been scheduled to hold elections this month before Toure's overthrow. The president, who completed nearly two terms, was not going to run.
The soldiers who toppled Toure accused him of failing to provide the army with enough resources to stop the Tuareg rebellion.
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Heavily armed Tuareg rebels arrived in northern Mali after the fall of neighboring Libya, and launched an insurgency in mid-January. Tuareg separatists have been seeking autonomy for decades.
Britain and France have advised their nationals to leave the country, while the United States says American should make plans to depart if necessary.
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