In Timbuktu, the thermometer regularly exceeds 40 degrees Celsius in the shade. Yet for days, no fan has spun, no refrigerator has worked, and taps have remained dry. The local thermal power plant, run by the public utility Énergie du Mali (EDM-SA), has ground to a complete halt. Without fuel for its generators, an entire city has been plunged into technological darkness, dragging down the Société malienne de gestion de l’eau potable (Somagep) along with it.
This is no longer just an infrastructure crisis; it is an invisible blockade that is paralysing the lives of tens of thousands of residents.
Logistical blockade: when fuel becomes a weapon
While Bamako endures chronic load-shedding, Timbuktu suffers a double punishment due to its geographic and security situation. The current crisis is the direct result of a fuel shortage that has stretched on for over a month.
- The JNIM embargo: For several months, jihadist groups of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM) have imposed a suffocating blockade on the main roads leading north. The tanker trucks that normally supply the city are targeted, blocked, or escorted only in trickles.
- The exorbitant cost of makeshift solutions: Deprived of regular supply routes, the city depends on informal circuits or slow, rare military convoys. The price of a litre of fuel on the black market has skyrocketed, making it impossible for small businesses or private generators to operate independently.
Immediate health impact: Without electricity, the cold chain is broken, threatening the preservation of scarce food and medicines. At the regional hospital of Timbuktu, the situation is close to catastrophic, forcing staff to prioritise only life-saving emergencies under the light of mobile phones or insufficient backup solar installations.
State disengagement under fire
Faced with this emergency, local authorities have announced operations to distribute drinking water by tanker trucks to compensate for the lack. But these emergency, humanitarian-style measures do not mask the resentment of the population. The people of Timbuktu feel abandoned on the periphery of the capital’s priorities.
The promise of securing strategic roads and achieving energy independence remains largely unfulfilled. By choosing an exclusively military approach to secure supply flows, without managing to guarantee the continuity of basic services, the Malian state leaves Somagep and EDM powerless against the cuts.
A city on life support
Timbuktu cannot live indefinitely on empty generators. If Mali’s transition is to prove its ability to administer the entire territory, the recovery of basic public services is just as crucial as the military reconquest. As long as the roads remain cut and EDM’s tankers cannot safely reach the north, the pearl of the desert will continue to go dark, one neighbourhood after another.
