Mali fuel crisis spirals amid armed group blocking supplies to capital

As a group affiliated with al-Qaeda imposes an economic siege on the country by blocking fuel tanker routes in an effort to destabilize the military administration, parts of Mali’s capital have come to a near standstill.

The United States Embassy in Mali on Tuesday urged Americans to “depart immediately” as the Sahel nation becomes more and more dangerous as the fuel blockade increases.

This week, there are long lines at petrol stations in the capital’s Bamako, with anger rising as the blockade gets worse. According to Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, the cost of fuel has increased by 500 percent, from $25 to $ 130 per litre.

The armed group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which imposed the blockade in retaliation last month for the military’s decision to outlaw fuel sales in rural areas, appeared to have succeeded in generating public outcry against the country’s rulers, Haque noted.

Omar Sidibe, a driver in Bamako, told Al Jazeera, “It’s up to the government to play a full role and take action to… discover the real reason for this shortage.”

According to Haque, al-Qaeda members were ejecting fuel trucks as supplies ran out.

Additionally, for the past two weeks, schools and universities have been closed, and Bamako-based airlines are now halting flights.

The US Embassy has also issued a warning to Americans to leave Mali right away using commercial flights rather than land-based neighboring nations because of the possibility of “terrorist attacks along national highways.”

It advised residents of , Mali&nbsp, to make emergency plans, including ones that would allow them to stay there for an extended period.

However, according to Haque, the military tyrannies resisted saying that “everything is under control.”

In a coup that came first in the year of 2019, the army pledged to end a tumultuous security situation involving armed groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), but the situation has since only increased.

Tanks are “empty.”

Truck drivers who were prepared to cross the border did not want to speak to Al Jazeera on camera despite the tense scenes from a fuel pit stop in Senegal, which is close to Mali. According to Habee, some transportation firms have been accused of paying truck drivers to move their vehicles.

They have been waiting, their tanks are empty, for months, not days. A dangerous path or journey into al-Qaeda territory is ahead for them, Haque said from Dakar.

Citizens in Bamako are becoming more and more desperate at the same time. “We could have bought gas in cans everywhere before. Gas resellist Bakary Coulibaly told Al Jazeera, “but now there isn’t anymore.”

It’s not certain that there will be gasoline at the gas stations, according to the group that we are required to visit. It’s only present on a select few stations.

In the Sahel, a vast stretch of semi-arid desert stretching from North to West Africa, JNIM is one of several armed organizations that are active there. Large-scale attacks and rapid fighting are carried out there.

The country cut ties with its former coloniser, France, while thousands of French soldiers who were involved in the conflict with the armed groups left&nbsp.