Embassy staff leave besieged capital

TT

Published 13.36

 

The blockade means a shortage of fossil fuels. Here people queue at a gas station in Bamako earlier in October. Photo: AP/TT

Great Britain and the United States are now sending embassy staff home from Mali, where the capital Bamako is under siege by jihadists.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry writes in an update that the extremists are trying to "put pressure on the military junta that rules the country".

The jihadist movement JNIM has described itself as a branch of the terrorist sect al-Qaeda. Now its militiamen have been blocking the roads to the city of Bamako for some time, in what is seen as an attempt to starve out the country's military junta.

The deteriorating security situation means that non-essential embassy staff must leave the country, Britain and the United States announced, according to the AFP news agency.

Sweden closed the remaining embassy in Bamako last year. A far-reaching travel advisory applies to Mali. The situation in the country is “continually worsening and attempts to leave are becoming increasingly risky,” the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in an update this week.