Mali Under Siege: Tracking the Fuel Blockade Crippling Bamako

Attacks by a jihadist group on fuel convoys bound for Bamako, the capital of Mali, have destroyed more than 130 tankers since September, a Bellingcat investigation has found. The systematic attacks by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) have brought Bamako and other regions of the West African nation to a standstill as the Al Qaeda-affiliated militia uses economic warfare to pressure the military government. Take me to the map Landlocked Mali depends on fuel imports transported via tankers by road from neighbouring Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Disrupting these convoys strikes directly at the country’s “economic core”, the independent global conflict monitor ACLED said. Mali has struggled to contain Islamist insurgent groups since a rebellion in the country’s north in 2012. Large swathe