The unrest, driven by local affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State, has intensified over the past year after the West African country’s military leaders kicked out French troops, asked United Nations’ peacekeepers to leave, and teamed up with Russian private military contractor Wagner Group.
A local al Qaeda affiliate, known as JNIM, has blocked the roads to Timbuktu since around Aug. 13, residents said, cutting food staples and stopping humanitarian aid to the remote city of some 35,000 people whose economy has already been dented by the years of violence.