BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Endless queues stretched outside gas stations in Mali's capital Bamako late Monday as commuters desperately tried to find fuel. Residents are beginning to feel the impact of a blockade on fuel imports into the city, announced in early September by a militant group linked to al-Qaeda.
Amadou Berthe, a bank employee in Bamako, said he traveled 20 kilometers (12 miles) in a motorcycle taxi to find gasoline for his car, which broke down due to lack of fuel when he returned from work.
“I've been to more than 20 gas stations and I still can't find fuel,” said Berthe, sitting on the back of a motorcycle with an empty can on her lap.
Militants from Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM) have ruthlessly attacked fuel tankers coming from neighboring Senegal and Ivory Coast, plunging the capital of the landlocked West African country into crisis. Despite being one of Africa's largest gold producers, Mali is the sixth least developed country in the world, with almost half of its population living below the national poverty line.
Some oil importers in Mali have begun using alternative means of getting fuel into the country to protect their staff and their businesses.
“I transport fuel in my tanks from Dakar (the capital of Senegal) to the border with Mali, where I sell it to traders who then take the risk of bringing it into Mali,” a Malian fuel importer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told the AP.
“Of course, I make a little money, but this is the only way I have found to ensure the safety of my employees and tankers,” the importer said.
Analysts say the blockade poses huge risks to the fragile local economy and is a major blow to Mali's military junta, which took power in 2021 promising to improve security.
Instead, attacks from militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have intensified in recent months.
Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at consulting firm Control Risks Group, 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 swath of semi-arid desert stretching from North Africa to West Africa where the insurgency is spreading rapidly and carrying out large-scale attacks.
In a report published last month, the Malian Petroleum Importers Association said JNIM militants had burned and destroyed more than 100 tanker trucks.
Videos posted on social media in recent weeks show truck drivers being held hostage by JNIM and demanding their release. The Associated Press could not independently verify the footage.
The militants also killed some of the tanker drivers, their relatives said.
Lamin Kaunta, a 38-year-old from Bamako, said two of his cousins from Ivory Coast, a driver and his student, were killed by JNIM militants in late September in the Sikasso region, near the Ivory Coast border.
“They had nothing to do with this crisis or Mali. My cousins worked for an Ivorian road construction company and were in Mali to buy equipment when they encountered JNIM militants who killed them,” he said.
In a press release, the Ivorian company CIVOTECH confirmed the death of two fuel tanker drivers and an apprentice driver on September 21 in the Sikasso region.
In response to the embargo, the Malian army began escorting several convoys on the roads between Bamako and the border with Senegal and Ivory Coast.
In a statement on Monday, the army said it had destroyed hideouts of JNIM fighters responsible for a recent attack on a tanker convoy in the Kolondieb area, near the Ivory Coast border.
