The GSIM has announced a blockade of areas along the borders with Senegal and Mauritania. Its aim is to keep out essentials such as fuel – and so hurt the ruling junta.

Jihadists from the Groupe de soutien à l’islam et aux musulmans (GSIM or JNIM) have imposed a ‘blockade’ on parts of western Mali. They have attacked transport vehicles and disrupted trade with Senegal, which supplies essentials such as fuel, Malian business leaders said on Friday.

Mali imports most of what it consumes. A large share moves overland from Dakar’s port to Bamako via the northern corridor. Other goods come in from Mauritania. Shipments also arrive from Côte d’Ivoire’s port of Abidjan in the south.

GSIM said on the evening of Wednesday 3 September that it had set up a blockade in the Malian regions of Kayes and Nioro in the west – areas bordering Senegal and Mauritania respectively. The jihadist group wants to stop imported fuel, notably from Senegal, and has threatened hauliers with burning their tanker lorries or killing drivers.

Economic and industrial targets

For several weeks the group has stepped up attacks on economic and industrial targets, in a bid to weaken Mali’s junta, in power since coups in 2020 and 2021. In Nioro du Sahel, a town in Nioro region, ‘access to the town is closed’ because of the blockade, a resident said on Friday.

‘We usually bring in fuel from Senegal, but have preferred to stop our operations for now. The jihadists have already burned buses and we do not want to suffer losses,’ said a manager at a Malian transport company.

A head of a company carrying passengers between Bamako and Dakar via Kayes said on Friday that he had also ‘stopped operations until further notice, given the security situation’. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

‘The state is taking steps to ensure the safety of people and property on the Bamako–Dakar road,’ said a source close to the transport ministry.