Dakar (dpa) – Residents of Mali's capital Bamako awoke Saturday morning to long lines at petrol stations amid concerns that the city's fuel supplies were running low following this week's coup. Witnesses told dpa that people were conserving fuel, only taking their cars out for necessary journeys and afraid that electricity supplies would be affected. All borders have been sealed since Thursday, preventing fuel shipments from reaching the capital and other towns. According to a Bamako-based pilot who spoke to dpa, the airport also remained closed. Sporadic gunfire was heard in the early hours of Saturday, and some commentators on Malian news websites said they feared a counter-coup. On Friday, the EU temporarily suspended its 583-million-euro (772-million-dollar) development programs in Mali, which include food security operations and access to clean drinking water. The African Union temporarily suspended Mali from the organization and told local journalists that it had information that President Amadou Toumani Toure was “safe” and “protected by loyalists.” Toure had been due to step down from power at the end of April when mutinous soldiers calling themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR) seized the presidential palace and state broadcasting building Thursday. Soldiers had protested that the government had not supplied them with adequate resources to fight northern Mali's Tuareg rebellion. Ten government officials, including Foreign Affairs Minister Soumeylou B Maiga, Bamako Mayor Adama Sangare and General Kafoukouna Kone – one of the Toure administration's most powerful players – are still being held by the CNRDR at military camps and police stations, according to local media reports. At least three civilians have been killed since Thursday by stray bullets fired by soldiers in the center of Bamako, the rights group Amnesty International said. A further 28 people have been injured in the unrest. The CNRDR, which is led by Captain Amadou Sanogo and is largely made up of young soldiers below his rank, has promised to hold new elections. But analysts have said it is possible that the CNRDR could lose momentum. “Given Sanogo's relative anonymity until this point and the timing of the move, it is unclear whether promises of quick elections are sincere,” Mali expert Robert Borthwick told dpa. “In the immediate aftermath of the military mutiny in Bamako, it is not clear whether Toure will seek to retain executive power.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/gcC0s Tags: Bamako, Coup, Energy, Fuel, Mali Section: Latest News, West Africa
