The United States and United Kingdom are withdrawing non-essential staff from their embassies in Mali, where a fuel blockade waged by jihadists has upturned daily life.
Since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali has been ruled by a military junta that is struggling to counter various armed groups, particularly the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, which is carrying out the blockade.
JNIM has targeted fuel tankers, particularly those coming from Senegal and Ivory Coast, through which the majority of Mali鈥檚 imported goods transit, since September.
The US State Department on Thursday ordered the American embassy鈥檚 鈥榥on-emergency employees and their family members to leave Mali due to safety risks鈥�.
The move came two days after the US embassy urged all citizens in the country to 鈥榙epart immediately鈥� on commercial aircraft.
The British foreign office also on Thursday said that 鈥榥on-essential British Embassy staff have been temporarily withdrawn from Bamako鈥�.
It additionally warned its citizens to 鈥榣eave immediately by commercial flight if you judge it safe to do so鈥�.
Italy, Germany, Canada and a handful of other countries have also told their nationals to leave Mali as swiftly as possible.
JNIM聽has recently appeared to be seeking to isolate Bamako by increasing operations on the surrounding roads.
Many tankers have been set on fire, while drivers and soldiers have been killed or kidnapped in jihadist ambushes.
The blockade has hit the capital particularly hard the past two weeks, with the landlocked Sahel nation鈥檚 economy grinding to a halt.