Mali’s largest trade union paralysed banks and government offices on Monday after launching a strike in the West African country, amid growing disenchantment with the post-coup government.

The National Union of Malian Workers (UNTM), which represents public servants and private-sector employees, called the 4-day strike after pay negotiations with Mali’s interim government collapsed.

UNTM official Ousmane Traore told AFP that workers in banks, the treasury and the departments of customs and taxes were mostly following the strike.

“In all regions of Mali and in Bamako, the administration is paralysed,” he added, referring to the landlocked nation’s capital.

Mali is governed by an transitional government installed after military officers deposed president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August, after weeks of protests over his handling of Mali’s jihadist insurgency, and perceived corruption.

Under the threat of international sanctions, the military handed power between September and October to a caretaker government that pledged to reform the constitution and stage elections within 18 months.

But figures with army links dominate this body, and there is growing anger about their prominent role and the slowness of reforms.

Coup leader Assimi Goita is currently serving as interim vice president and the interim president, Bah Ndaw, is a retired army officer.

This month, the M5 opposition movement — which led anti-Keita protests in 2020 — also urged dissolving the transitional government in favour of “a more legitimate” body.

Responding to growing criticism, the presidency said last week that Interim Prime Minister Moctar Ouane would form a more inclusive cabinet.

M5 has already refused to participate in the new government, however. The question of the military’s participation is particularly fraught.

Cocoa farmers across Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest producer of the key ingredient for chocolate, are down in the dumps after prices for their commodity have fallen for the second year running.

Not so in M’Brimbo, a village in central Ivory Coast which 11 years ago became a testing ground for organic cocoa farming and today is prospering.

The local farmers’ collective, the Fair Cooperative Society of Bandama (SCEB), sell their high-quality produce at twice the market rate for non-organic cocoa.

“When producers are trained and well-paid, they can make very good cocoa in Ivory Coast,” said Arthur Gautier, an agronomist who works for Ethiquable, a French company that specialises in marketing fair-trade products and buys SCEB’s harvest.

The chocolate made from their cocoa is sold in French supermarkets under the brand “Grand Cru M’Brimbo,” a name that resonates with fine wines — “Grand Cru” means “vintage.”

Cocoa growing was massively promoted by Ivory Coast’s government following independence in 1960, becoming the backbone of the country’s rise as one of West Africa’s leading economies. Today, Ivory Coast produces two million tonnes of cocoa per year, equivalent to more than 40 percent of the world’s market.

But expansion has also come at a grim price for the environment and fuelled a dependency that ratchets up rural poverty whenever prices slump.

Around 90 percent of Ivory Coast’s forests have been destroyed, stripping away habitat for elephants and other species, and in some places herbicides and pesticides have lastingly tainted the soil.

Using techniques pioneered in Latin America, SCEB farmers weed their fields manually and have developed specific methods to dry and ferment cocoa beans, helping to develop the chocolate’s signature rich taste.

The European Union’s ambition to go carbon-neutral by 2050 means slicing greenhouse emissions from shipping by 90 percent as part of a far-reaching plan to shake up the maritime economy, the EU executive said Monday.

The European Commission’s vice president in charge of the EU’s Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, said “We must change tack and develop a sustainable blue economy where environmental protection and economic activities go hand in hand,”

Maritime transport accounts for 2.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally and 13 percent of emissions from the EU’s transport sector, according to the Commission.

A recovery in big economies from the coronavirus pandemic this year and next means seaborne freight — handling 80 percent of the volume of the world’s trade in goods — is starting to expand rapidly.

The European Commission hopes to counter the increase in emissions with a plan to encourage the EU’s 27 member states and the bloc’s neighbours to invest in sustainable solutions, such as more efficient propulsion systems, slow steaming and weather routing.

By doing so, it hopes to grab the initiative from the UN’s International Maritime Organization, whose own global plan along the same lines is perceived as too slow and inadequate to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

“We have an opportunity to start afresh, and we want to make sure that the recovery shifts the focus from mere exploitation to sustainability and resilience,” said the EU’s commissioner for maritime affairs, Virginijus  Sinkevicius.

The EU’s approach covers also other “blue economy” sectors, including ports, fisheries, coastal tourism, and greatly increasing renewable ocean energy sources such as wind, waves and tides.

Together, they all represent 4.5 million direct jobs in the EU and 650 billion euros ($789 billion) in revenue.

Financing for the transition will come from the Commission and the European Investment Bank Group, which is made up of the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.

Bitcoin fell to a three-month low on Monday in a volatile session that saw investors selling and buying the digital currency after Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted about the carmaker’s bitcoin holdings.

Bitcoin fell to as low as $42,185, its lowest since Feb. 8, and was last down 6.2% at $43,564.

In his latest tweet, Musk said “Tesla has not sold any bitcoin”. A day earlier, he suggested Tesla may have done so, and last week, Musk said Tesla would stop taking bitcoin as payment due to environmental concerns about energy use to process transactions.

Musk has boosted crypto markets with his enthusiasm for the asset class, but has lately roiled trade by appearing to cool on bitcoin in favor of its one-time parody, dogecoin. While bitcoin, dogecoin and ether still enjoy strong gains year to date, their latest gyrations are beginning to spook even steeled traders.

“At this rate of fall, bitcoin is likely to see support at $40,000 if the selling continues, and surviving this fundamental onslaught can set a new run that will create a new all-time high of $70,000 in the mid-to long term,” said Alexander Vasiliev, co-founder and chief commercial officer of global payment network Mercuryo.

“The market has proven it can react to Elon’s tweets and should his comments continue to stream in unbridled, (bitcoin’s)price may be kept below $50,000 for much longer,” he added.

Ether, linked to the ethereum blockhain, fell to as low as $3,123.94, and last traded down 8.3% at $3,291. Dogecoin fell 6% to US$0.48, according to crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com.

Tesla disclosed in February that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in the first quarter. At the end of April, Musk said the company sold 10% of its holdings for liquidity purposes.