The Malian capital has been experiencing a new diesel shortage for several days. In Bamako, this fuel is now mainly reserved for supplying the national energy company amid prolonged electricity outages, the Malian oil traders’ association said on Tuesday.
Since September, fighters from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda and reportedly supported by the military regime in Algeria, according to Western observers, have imposed a blockade around several Malian cities and carried out repeated attacks on supply convoys. This strategy has severely affected the national economy, including in the capital.
A landlocked country that relies heavily on road transport for its imports, Mali had already faced serious tensions in fuel supply in recent weeks. Several attacks targeting fuel tanker trucks had disrupted the logistical chain essential to supplying the country.
This shortage is largely explained by the blockade imposed for several months by jihadist groups in several regions of the country. The few diesel convoys that still manage to reach Bamako are now primarily allocated to thermal power plants responsible for generating electricity.
According to an official from the oil traders’ association, priority is currently being given to the company Energy of Mali (EDM), whose turbines are under heavy demand due to high temperatures. The company mainly operates thermal power plants that run on fuel oil and diesel.
“Trucks transporting sand and gravel have come to a halt due to the lack of fuel,” a member of the Association of Sand Operators told AFP.
According to Studio Tamani, a radio station funded by a Swiss foundation, more than a hundred minibuses providing public transportation were immobilized on Monday in Bamako because of the diesel shortage.