AFP -------------- Travellers to Mali are stranded around their borders are now stranded following the closure of its borders by other West African countries surrounding the impoverished country.

The landlocked country is bordered by Burkina Faso in the northwest, Niger in the northeast, Benin Republic in the southeast, Togo and Ghana in the south and Cote d'Ivoire in the southwest.

The bus stations in Mali’s capital are standing unusually quiet, with foreign passengers left in limbo after West African countries closed their borders with the military-ruled nation.

Only the routes to Mauritania and Algeria — which are not ECOWAS members — and Guinea remain open.

Guinea is a member of the regional bloc, but is also governed by a military junta and has decided to leave its border with Mali open.

Africa Tours Trans is also, another major bus firms in the impoverished Sahel state, offering connections to its regional cities as well as other neighbouring countries but the operations of the company are grounded.

By late Tuesday morning only one bus arrived at its station in Bamako, coming from the central Malian city of Sevare, even as dozens of would-be passengers were hanging around next to their luggage, left in limbo by the border closures.

The West African countries under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, had on Sunday, agreed to shut their borders with Mali and impose a trade embargo over delayed elections.

The move came after Mali’s army-dominated government last month proposed staying in power for up to five years before restoring democracy — despite international demands that it respect a promise to hold elections on February 27.

These were coming against the backdrop of sour relations between Mali and its neighbours which had steadily deteriorated since the Colonel Assimi Goita junta took over power in a military coup in August 2020.

The sanctions are already affecting travellers in Mali, a vast landlocked nation of 19 million people that borders seven other states.

The country’s location makes it a key transport hub for the region, with Bamako a key stop along the land route linking countries such as Senegal to states further east, like Nigeria.

– ‘Shocked’ –

Jennifer Edong, a Nigerian in her 30s who works in fashion, was among the passengers stranded at the Africa Tours Trans station in Bamako.

Edong had been travelling to The Gambia for work, and had arrived in Mali on Friday expecting her next connection to depart on Tuesday — only to turn up at the station and find the connection cancelled.

“We are stuck here, I cannot do anything,” she said, adding that she didn’t have a local SIM card and disliked Malian cuisine.

Also, Peter Adeyemo, 48, another Nigerian who was en route to his home in The Gambia, was sleeping on a bench nearby.

He opened his eyes to ask when the borders were due to open, but no one was able to answer.

“I was shocked,” Adeyemo told AFP of the cancelled routes, explaining that being forced to camp at the bus station meant he could not bathe, among other problems.

It is not clear when the sanctions will be lifted, nor how Mali will respond to them.

Mali’s interim government has pledged to “develop a response plan to safeguard our sovereignty and preserve the integrity of our national territory,” but has not offered any details.

– ‘We’ll deal with it’ –

For Malian travel firms, the border closures will also compound commercial problems posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already made travel across the region more difficult.

Yaya Zakaria Toure, a representative of African Tours Trans, said the sanctions would “make the problem even worse”.

All international connections scheduled this week have been cancelled, he said.

“But we’ll deal with it because we have no other choice. We follow the government”.

Several transport industry officials told AFP that many buses are still running, but they are now simply dropping passengers off at the border.

Travellers must then cross the border on foot, baggage in hand, before catching a bus on the other side.

“That’s how we do it at the border with Ivory Coast, which has been closed for two years because of coronavirus,” said one bus driver, who declined to be named.

At the Africa Tours Trans station in Bamako, the Malians able to return home did so.

But the foreigners — often without lodgings or relatives in the city — remained on its benches, hoping for a swift resolution.

“By the grace of God, maybe we will move,” said Edong, the Nigerian who works in fashion.