Mali announced Friday that it would shortly re-open its air and land borders after a months-long closure aimed at stemming coronavirus infections. In a statement, the government said air borders, closed on March 18, would open again on Saturday and land borders, closed on March 26, from July 31. Normal working hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. are also now back in place, it added, after having earlier shortened the working day to 2 p.m. to slow infections. A night-time curfew imposed in late March was lifted on May 9. Malian authorities have recorded 2,494 cases of coronavirus to date, with 74 fatalities. The number is low compared to other parts of the world. But there have been fears that Mali is particularly at risk from a large outbreak because of endemic poverty and an eight-year-old jihadist conflict. Thousands of civilians and soldiers have died in the conflict to date, and hundreds of thousands have had to flee their homes id-mrb/siu/stb/eml/ri