Due to growing terror threats and a deteriorating gasoline crisis brought on by a terrorist blockade, the US Embassy in Mali is advising all American citizens to leave the country right away.
The embassy advised in a statement that passengers should take commercial planes because overland routes are too risky and there have been reports of terrorist assaults along national highways.
After a previous caution against traveling to Mali due to crime, terrorism, and kidnappings, this is the second advisory in just three days.
The al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, announced in September that it had blocked fuel tankers from entering the country, part of its campaign against Mali’s ruling military authorities. Fighters have set more than 100 trucks on fire, crippling the nation’s fuel supply.
The impact has been severe, schools and universities have shut down nationwide, and transportation has nearly ground to a halt.
JNIM is one of several armed groups destabilizing the Sahel region, a vast stretch of desert from North Africa to West Africa, where an insurgency is spreading fast and the humanitarian toll is growing.
