Senegal-Mali trade has threatened while activists have put fire trucks near Kayes

Mali’s military government has sought to calm the anger of the blockade by Islamist activists on the main highways where truck drivers faced ambushes and crisis fire crises.

In a rare recognition of the severity of the situation affecting the country without coast, Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga said that measures were underway to improve security on the routes.

The blockage – a potentially serious escalation of the jihadist insurrection of Mali – particularly affects the supply of fuel, which could paralyze the country.

The Sahel region of West Africa is known as the epicenter of global terrorism, representing more than 50% of all deaths linked to terrorism.

Several analysts claim that the objective of militants linked to Al-Qaeda is to impose a blockade from the capital, Bamako.

The blockade seems to have started with the abduction and subsequent release of six Senegalese truck pilots along the Dakar-Bamako corridor in early September.

This is not a new tactic of the subsidiary of Sahel of Al Qaeda-Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin (Jnim)-but the scale is more and more ambitious.

They imposed a blockade on two key locations: the Kayes region – which serves as a gateway for all food supplies from Senegal by road and train, and Nioro -du -Sahel – which is on the main route connecting Mali to Mauritania.

The reports indicate that the Islamist fighters have erected control points to restrict the flow of goods and extort the “taxes” of traders.

They allegedly burned down oil makers, trucks and buses, removed from foreign drivers and attacked convoys carrying fuel imports from Senegal and Mauritania.

Window villages have been brought to economic judgment, closed markets, transport has stopped and public services disrupted.

Jnim suspected activists also ambushed fuel trucks from Côte d’Ivoire in Bougouni, in the southern Sikasso region of Mali. Several trucks were burnt down.

“Economic Asphyxia” is the objective of activists, the BBC Mamadou Bodian told the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal.

He and others highlight a strategic change of activists, who are no longer just about military confrontation to assert territorial control.

Analysts fear that, if it was successfully implemented, the embargo announced by Jnim on Kayes and Nioro-du-Sahel could paralyze Western Mali.

The Malian army initially minimized the blockade, the spokesperson Col Souleymane Dembélé rejecting the reports of a seat as “a war of information orchestrated by the foreign media”.

Images circulating on the social networks of besieged vehicles on the corridor of Dakar-Bamako had been released from its context, he insisted. ” The bus video is burnt down dates from April and has no connection with the so-called blockade. “”

According to the army spokesman, “no systemic transport interruption has been observed” in western Mali and the real challenge that people face in the Kayes region is “the rainy season and not the actions of terrorist groups”.

Col Dembélé also characterized the increased activity of Jnim as “the last dressings of an enemy at a distance and retired”. It is a refrain often used by Malian officials since the junta seized power five years ago.

Last week, the army said that it had led an air strike in a Jnim camp in Mousafa, Kayes, killing “several dozen activists” and destroying a site that would have been used for logistics and planning.

Reinforcements were sent to Kayes and Nioro-du-Sahel, he said, the soldiers announcing “hunting and destruction operations” along the main roads and a “large-scale offensive” on the Diéma-Nioo corridor.

The state media reported that the hostages had been released during the operations, but did not say how much.

Such efforts of the army do not seem to have reduced the fears of the inhabitants or the disturbance of their lives. Residents report that militant control points remain in place, while transport companies suspended the operations and truck drivers continue to cope with intimidation.

Kayes represents around 80% of the country’s gold production and is also considered to be the “gateway to Senegal” in Mali. It is a logistics center where international trade routes converge.

Mali is a country without coast which depends strongly on neighboring ports for fuel, food and manufactured products, therefore Kayes control is essential.

The blockade not only disrupts local life, but directly threatens the economic stability of Bamako.

“The Kayes region has become a major strategic target for Jnim, which considers it a vital space,” said the Timbuktu Institute based in Dakar.

“The jihadists intend to disturb the country’s supplies, to destabilize or even to suffocate the Malian economy, to isolate the capital Bamako and to increase the economic pressure on the Malian transitional regime,” he said.

The blockade also signals the geographic expansion of the JNIM insurrection.

Traditionally, group operations have been concentrated in the North and Center of Mali – in Mopti, Segou and Timbuktu. However, in recent years Jnim has made major breakthroughs in southern Mali, including the Sikasso and Koulikoro regions.

By turning his attention to Kayes, the group widens not only its imprint but threatens to surround Bamako.

Since 2012, Mali has been in the grip of a deep security crisis fueled by the violence of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the organization of the Islamic State (IS), as well as other armed militias.

The local and international media warn that the recent isolation of JNIM of parts of southern Mali could pave the way for similar incursions in neighboring coastal countries.

The crisis underlines the limits of Mali’s dependence on military force, supported by mercenaries of the body of Russian Africa, as the Wagner group is now known, whose role in operations is not officially recognized.

By disturbing the commercial roads of Senegal and Mauritania, Jnim has shown that he can plan to influence west, which raises fears of expansion in these countries.

The Union of Senegalese truckers (URS) blamed activists and describes recent truck drivers as a threat to regional trade.

Mali is the main African trading partner in Senegal, representing more than $ 1.4 billion (1 billion pounds sterling) in exports last year. The Bamako-Kayes route carries fuel, cement, foodstuffs and manufactured products essential to both economies.

There is a risk that what has started as a tactical disturbance could evolve towards a prolonged seat, eroding confidence in the institutions of the Malian state and expose its fragility.

The “choice of JNIM to target buses and oil tankers is not insignificant – it aims to strike at the heart of Mali’s social and economic mobility,” reported Bamada.net last week.

More than a local thrust, Kayes’ siege is a warning sign that the jihadist insurgency in Mali has entered a new phase with the repercussions of economic sabotage going far beyond the borders of Mali.