Malians return to work, activity picks up after coup

[MrVan]

BAMAKO (AFP) – Life returned to normal in Bamako on Tuesday as offices and businesses re-opened and the city teemed with activity after a call by the junta for people to go to work.

Streets were choked with traffic and taxis and minibuses took up their usual routes.

The uptick in activity comes after five days of limbo following a coup ousting President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22 which near-paralysed the capital city.

Meanwhile the Economic Community of West African States on Tuesday opened an emergency summit to discuss the situation in Mali, five days after renegade soldiers overthrew the government there.

Pedestrians filled the streets, groups of children headed to school and police returned to directing traffic. Only a few soldiers were visible.

"I returned to work at the given time 7:30 am (0730 GMT)," said Lacina Diabate, an accountant for the National Employment Agency. "Everyone is in, the atmosphere is normal."

A passing lawyer, Yehiya Toure said: "It isn't because these thugs (overthrew government) that Mali is going to stop working. People haven't worked for several days, their pockets are empty."

Closed since Thursday — when soldiers took to the television to announce they had suspended the constitution — an electronics shop in a shopping centre re-opened.

"Thank God, all is ok," said salesman Oumarou Diakite, relieved that there was no trouble in town, after soldiers shot their way to the presidency and took to looting in the days following the coup.

The band of low-ranking officers justify their takeover of an "incompetent" government by claiming they were inadequately equipped to face a Tuareg rebellion in the north which has overwhelmed the army.

The coup leaders have received no sympathy from abroad and the international community has suspended aid to Mali pending their return to the barracks.

Patience has also worn thin at home and on Monday a large rally was held against the junta in Bamako.

Vanguard Nigeria