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17-09-2025
BAMAKO/ DAKAR: At least 40 fuel tankers were destroyed in Mali on Sunday when al Qaeda-linked insurgents who had declared a blockade on fuel imports to the country attacked a convoy of more than 100 vehicles under military escort, two sources said on Monday.
After the insurgent group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), announced the blockade last week, a source close to Mali’s chamber of commerce said the country would run out of fuel within two weeks if supplies were completely cut off.
A truckers’ union official told media around 40 fuel tankers were destroyed in the incident on Sunday, while a source close to JNIM said they had destroyed 80.
In a video message, the group’s spokesperson took credit for the attack in the Kayes region in the west of the country, and said the Malian soldiers escorting the convoy had fled the scene.
Mali’s army said in a statement it “suffered a terrorist attack” during a mission to secure people and goods on the road from Kayes to Bamako but had reacted “vigorously”.
A spokesperson for the army did not respond to a request for further comment on the number of fuel tankers destroyed.
The country’s military government, which took power after coups in 2020 and 2021, is facing growing pressure from militant groups who analysts say are trying to encircle cities and towns in the Sahel region.
Mali’s military said it had carried out airstrikes in the gold-rich western region of Kayes after al Qaeda-linked militants took steps to impose a blockade on fuel imports to the landlocked West African country’s capital, Bamako.
The operations are the latest attempt by Mali’s military rulers, who took power after coups in 2020 and 2021, to ease growing pressure from militant groups who analysts say are trying to encircle cities and towns in the Sahel region.
A spokesperson for Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) on Thursday announced the blockade and said it would also restrict the movements of residents of the western towns of Kayes and Nioro, near the border with Senegal and Mauritania.
Since the announcement, militants have stopped and emptied fuel trucks in the area, a Nioro resident told media.
“JNIM is applying increased pressure in this region to weaken the government in Bamako but also to asphyxiate the capital,” said Djenabou Cisse, research fellow at the think tank Foundation for Strategic Research.
In a statement on Monday, the army said it had conducted operations in the towns of Diema and Nioro. Speaking on state television late on Sunday, a colonel posted in Nioro specified that the operations included airstrikes and that soldiers had also managed to free people taken hostage by the militants.
Some transport companies have suspended operations along the route from Bamako to Senegal’s capital Dakar, a Malian truckers’ union official told media during the weekend, adding that the road between Bamako and the southern city of Segou had also been blocked. The official asked not to be named for safety reasons.
On Friday, six truck drivers from neighboring Senegal were kidnapped by “a jihadist group” in Mali, according to a Senegalese truckers’ union. They were released the following day, said Daouda Lo, spokesperson for the union.
Jihadists have since May attacked Malian and foreign-owned businesses in Kayes, including cement factories, sugar factories, and mines. Multinational miners, including Barrick Mining and B2Gold, operate in the region.
A Malian security analyst in Bamako said JNIM’s ability to swiftly take steps to implement the blockade showed its growing strength. (Int’l News Desk)
