Almost 3,000 Malians flee to Mauritania amid jihadist blockades

Between 2,000 and 3,000 Malians have fled to Mauritania in the space of two weeks after their towns were surrounded by jihadists, according to France 24 via AFP on November 10th.

The UN revealed that the Malians were displaced from the town of Lere and its surroundings after jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) imposed a blockade.

Lere is located in central Mali and 60 kilometres from the Mauritanian border. The EU humanitarian branch’s field expert, Norik Soubrier, said that this wave of refugees was the largest since late 2023.

Fatima, a local of Lere, said that two weeks ago, her community was placed under a blockade by the JNIM jihadist group. They were told to leave the town, which they eventually did after food ran out. Some residents were suspected to be in alliance with the Malian army and were even given “a 24-hour ultimatum” to leave or else they would be killed or taken hostage.

According to officials and locals, around 14 civilians were killed in Lere by JNIM. The community leader also said that the murders were not random, and the jihadists were looking for particular people.

Since September 2025, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group has been conducting similar blockades on other towns across Mali, and Fatima’s community is one of the latest to suffer from the group’s actions against civilians.

In the Mauritanian border post of Fassala, Malians who recently fled their country are now registering as refugees to escape from the unrest and violence.

South-Eastern Mauritania is home to the largest refugee camp for Malians, who have been displaced a security crisis that began in 2012. However, global humanitarian aid cuts deeply impacted the Malian refugees living in Mbera, Mauritania, who are growing tired of their living situation in the camp’s poor conditions.

JNIM is also conducting an ongoing fuel blockade on Mali’s capital Bamako and its neighbouring regions in hopes of destabilising the government. The blockade has deeply impacted country’s economy ever since it started in September 2025, with the jihadists also reportedly blocking the entry of other vital goods into the country.

The jihadists attacked fuel tankers that were escorted by the military, and they have taken advantage of Mali’s landlocked geography to block fuel imports from neighbouring countries.

This blockade has isolated smaller towns like Lere from the military, leaving them at the mercy of JNIM. The ruling military junta came into power after a coup in 2020, and has been struggling with insurgency that has consistently put it under pressure.

While the Malian government has received foreign military support to help resolve the security concerns, the situation still remains unstable and is now even more fragile due to the jihadist’s fuel blockade.

France and the US have advised their citizens to leave Mali, as the junta’s grip on the West African country is weakening. The Malian government announced the closure of schools at the end of October, and businesses have been unable to function due to the scarce reserves of fuel.

The blockades reinforce JNIM’s power in Mali, as the group is taking advantage of their fuel blockade to continue controlling larger parts of the country. The United Nations even consider the jihadist group the largest threat in the Sahel region, and the African Union has now called for international action to help mitigate the crisis in Mali.

France 24 via AFP, Maghrebi.org