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 Reuters.
“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 Reuters 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.
ESCALATING ATTACKS
On Friday, six truck drivers from neighbouring 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.
“The objective … is to push the civilian population into the streets, to demonstrate their discontent with the transitional authorities, and to weaken, or at least discredit, the transitional authorities,” the analyst said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
