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Endless lines stretch in front of gas stations in Mali’s capital bamako By late Monday night, passengers desperately tried to find fuel. Residents have begun to feel the effects of a blockade on fuel imports into the city declared in early September by an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group.
Amadou Berthe, a bank employee in Bamako, said he traveled 20 kilometers (12 mi) by motorcycle taxi to find gas for his car, which had broken down due to lack of fuel while returning from work.
“I’ve been to over 20 gas stations and still can’t get any fuel,” said Berthe, sitting on the back of a motorcycle with an empty jerry can on his knees.
Terrorists of Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM) have repeatedly attacked fuel tankers coming from the neighboring country. senegal And Ivory CoastThe capital of the landlocked West African country was thrown into crisis. Despite being one of Africa’s top gold producers, Mali is considered the world’s sixth least developed country, with almost half of its population living below the national poverty line.
Some oil importers in Mali have begun using alternative methods of bringing fuel into the country to protect their employees and their businesses.
“I transport fuel in my tankers Burp (Senegalese capital) over the border to Mali, where I sell it to traders who then take the risk of bringing it into Mali,” a Malian fuel importer, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, told the AP.
“Of course, I don’t earn much, but this is the only way to keep my workers and tanker trucks safe,” the importer said.
Analysts say the blockade poses major risks to the fragile local economy and is a significant blow to Mali’s military regime, which took power in 2021 promising to improve security.
Instead, attacks by militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have intensified in recent months.
Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at Control Risk Group consulting firm, said JNIM is using the blockade to pressure commercial operators and residents to distance themselves from military authorities, thereby undermining the government’s legitimacy and authority.
JNIM is one of several armed groups operating in the Sahel, a vast strip of semi-arid desert stretching from North Africa to West Africa, where an insurgency is spreading rapidly with large-scale attacks.
In a report released last month, the Malian Petroleum Importers Association said more than 100 tanker trucks were burned and destroyed by JNIM fighters.
Videos on social media in recent weeks have shown truck drivers being held hostage by JNIM and demands for their release. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the footage.
According to their relatives, the terrorists also killed some tanker drivers.
Bamako resident Lamine Konta, 38, said his two cousins from Ivory Coast, a driver and his apprentice, were killed by JNIM fighters in late September in the Sikasso region near the border with Ivory Coast.
“They had nothing to do with this crisis or Mali. My cousin worked for an Ivorian road construction company and was in Mali to pick up equipment when he encountered JNIM fighters, who killed him,” he said.
In a press release, the Ivorian company CIVOTECH confirmed the deaths of two fuel tanker drivers and a trainee driver on 21 September in the Sikasso region.
In response to the ban, the Malian army has begun moving some truck convoys onto the roads between Bamako and the borders with Senegal and Ivory Coast.
In a statement on Monday, the army said it destroyed positions of JNIM fighters responsible for a recent attack on a tanker convoy in the Kolondiaba area near the border with Ivory Coast.