The blockade, enforced by JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) — the al-Qaeda-aligned coalition operating across the Sahel — has paralysed movement along highways connecting Bamako to the north and east of the country, residents and local officials said. The timing, just days before the Eid al-Adha holiday, has intensified pressure on communities already grappling with soaring prices and limited access to basic supplies.
“They set fire to more than 60 vehicles on the Doucomi-Bougouni axis alone,” said a local transport union official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Cars, trucks, even motorbikes — anything that tried to pass was set ablaze. People are stranded. The markets are empty.”
The jihadists have also targeted fuel depots and supply convoys, creating cascading shortages in several towns. In the Mopti region, residents reported that petrol and diesel had become virtually unavailable, grounding transport and disrupting harvest logistics in the middle of the agricultural season.
The violence comes against a backdrop of deepening instability in Mali, where the military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goita has struggled to contain an insurgency that has spread from the north into the central and southern regions. The blockade marks a strategic shift: rather than solely targeting military convoys, JNIM is now weaponising economic isolation against the civilian population.
Regional security analysts say the timing is deliberate. “Eid is a moment when families travel, when food consumption peaks, when the government is under pressure to show normalcy,” said Dr. Ibrahim Cissé, a Sahel security specialist at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies in Dakar. “By choking supply routes now, the militants are sending a message that the state cannot protect its citizens — even during the most important religious festival of the year.”
At least four people have been killed in incidents related to the blockade, according to accounts from local hospital workers and community leaders, though independent verification has been difficult due to restrictions on movement in affected areas.
The UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said it was monitoring the situation and called on all parties to allow humanitarian access. The mission’s spokesperson, in a statement released in Bamako, said supply corridors must remain open for civilians caught in the crossfire.
France and other Western partners have urged the Malian junta to accelerate its transition back to constitutional rule, but the junta has rebuffed external pressure, expelling French troops in 2022 and turning instead to Russia’s Wagner Group for security assistance. That relationship has done little to stem the militants’ advance.
For ordinary Malians, the blockade is not an abstract security story — it is a daily struggle for survival. “We have no flour. No oil. No sugar,” said Fatoumata Diallo, a mother of four in the town of San. “The children are hungry. We cannot go to the market because the road is controlled by them. This is what they want — for us to suffer.”
As Eid approaches, the pressure on Mali’s overwhelmed civilian population is set to intensify further, with aid agencies warning that humanitarian access could be severely compromised if the blockade remains in place through the holiday period.