Islamist militants are still pounding large regions of Burkina Faso and Mali, blocking roads, launching attacks and severing supply lines as they expand their decade-long presence, according to resident accounts.
Jihadists are currently blocking several towns in central and northern Burkina Faso, and army supply lines are a constant target.
The city of Arbinda was isolated for several months.
“Arbinda is going through a food crisis. People are suffering from lack of food and basic goods,” one resident told AFP by phone, who, like the others, insisted on speaking anonymously for security reasons.
“The city has not received supplies for more than six months. We just want to eat,” said another resident.
Burkina Faso and Mali have battled violence from jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State for a decade.
Both countries have been ruled by military governments since 2020-2022. carried out coups.
But analysts say the military rulers have largely failed to deliver on their promises to defeat the jihadists and make their countries safer, as data show violence in the region is on the rise.
In Solhane, further east in Burkina, residents expressed similar concerns to those in Arbinda.
“People are hungry. The last planned food convoy was attacked, which worsened the situation of the already exhausted population,” said one resident.
“We cannot farm or do anything outside the town. Even the carts used to transport firewood are confiscated. We are calling for help just to survive,” said a resident of Bourzanga, another town.
The Islamic and Muslim Support Group, known by its Arabic acronym JNIM, which is linked to Al Qaeda, is the most influential group in both countries and the “biggest threat in the Sahel,” according to the United Nations.
His victims, both civilians and military, numbered in the thousands.
About four million people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and neighboring countries are now displaced – about two-thirds more than five years ago – reflecting insecurity, limited access to services and the effects of climate change, the UN said this month.
In Mali, JNIM has intensified attacks in the western and southern parts of the country since September, imposing an oil blockade, causing fuel shortages, further worsening the already precarious situation of millions of people.
– “Abandoned City” –
“We ran out of fuel for two weeks. Our fields started drying up because there was no fuel for the pumps,” said a San resident in central Mali.
“Today the truck drivers are not coming because the jihadists have cut off the roads. Our produce is rotting or drying at the edge of the fields. How can we pay our debts?” said a producer and member of the regional assembly of the Chamber of Agriculture in Sikas, southern Mali.
In the central Malian town of Macina, the presence of the jihadists also causes the presence of the state to disappear.
“We don’t have birth certificates or official marriage certificates. The jihadists said they didn’t want any symbols of the state, so the registrars and administrators left the town,” said a local nurse.
The military, which rarely announces any cause within its ranks, regularly declares victories in the fight against the jihadists.
But residents of the jihadist blockade have little faith.
“We are told that the army is getting stronger. But if terrorists still manage to occupy a town like Gombor in an important military region for a few days, then things are really not going as they say,” said a resident of the town of Gombor in northwestern Burkina Faso.
Niger, a neighbor and ally of Mali and Burkina Faso and also ruled by a military junta, faces deadly jihadist attacks from Boko Haram, as well as groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
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