
European Union (EU) Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has said the European Union would impose sanctions on Mali in line with measures already taken by the ECOWAS grouping of West African states.
The ECOWAS had agreed a raft of restrictions against Mali on Sunday.
These include the suspension of financial transactions over the interim authorities’ failure to hold democratic elections next month as agreed following a 2020 military coup
Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU defence ministers in the western French city of Brest that “the risk that the situation in this country deteriorates is evident”.
He said the EU move was also a response to the arrival of private military contractors from the Russian Wagner Group, whose members are mostly ex-service personnel.