The U.S. Embassy urged citizens to leave Mali immediately by commercial aircraft as the lockdown makes daily life even more dangerous.
Parts of Mali’s capital are nearly paralyzed as al-Qaeda affiliates block fuel tanker routes and siege the country’s economy in an effort to overthrow the military government.
As the Sahel country slides further into crisis, the US Embassy in Mali on Tuesday called on Americans to “depart immediately” as fuel blockades make daily life increasingly dangerous.
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Long lines formed at petrol stations in the capital Bamako this week as anger reached a boiling point as the lockdown intensified. According to Al Jazeera’s Nicholas Haq, the shortage has caused fuel prices to jump 500%, from $25 to $130 per liter.
Haq noted that the armed group Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), which imposed a blockade last month in retaliation for the military’s ban on fuel sales in rural areas, appears to have succeeded in directing public anger against the country’s rulers.
Bamako driver Omar Sidibe told Al Jazeera: “It’s our job for the government to play its full role and take action… to find out the real reason for this shortage.”
Haq said al-Qaeda fighters were burning fuel trucks as supplies dried up.
Schools and universities have also been closed for two weeks, and airlines have canceled flights from Bamako.
Meanwhile, the US embassy warned Americans to leave Mali immediately by commercial flight rather than traveling by land to neighboring countries, citing the risk of “terrorist attacks along national highways.”
It advised citizens who choose to remain in Mali to prepare contingency plans, including for long-term evacuation.
But Haq said military rulers insist “everything is under control.”
The military first seized power in a coup in 2020, promising to control a spiraling security crisis involving al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS)-linked militant groups, but years later the crisis has only escalated.
Tank is “empty”
Amid tense scenes at a refueling pit stop in Mali’s neighboring Senegal, truck drivers preparing to cross the border did not want to speak in front of Al Jazeera’s cameras. Haq said some trucking companies have been accused of paying al-Qaeda fighters to move their trucks.
“They have been waiting here not for days, but for months, and the tanks are empty. They have a dangerous road ahead of them, or a journey into al-Qaeda territory,” Haq said from Dakar.
Meanwhile, residents in Bamako are feeling increasingly hopeless. “Before, you could buy gasoline in cans everywhere, but now you can’t buy it anymore,” gas reseller Bakary Coulibaly told Al Jazeera.
“I have no choice but to go to a gas station, and even if I do, I don’t know if they have gas or not. There are only a few stations that have gas.”
JNIM is one of several armed groups operating in the Sahel region, a vast semi-arid desert region stretching from North Africa to West Africa, where large-scale attacks have been carried out and fighting has rapidly escalated.
Under military control, the country severed ties with its former colony France, and thousands of French soldiers left the country to fight against the insurgents.
The fighting has left thousands of people dead and up to 350,000 people now displaced, according to Human Rights Watch.
