Mali: Tombouctou privée d'eau courante et d'électricité depuis une semaine
Timbuktu, in northern Mali, has been without running water and electricity for a week, due to fuel shortages that prevent the thermal power plant of the "city of 333 saints" from being supplied, AFP learned Friday from local and official sources.
For several months, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, have been attacking fuel convoys in order to suffocate the economy of this Sahelian country, which has been plagued by conflict for more than a decade.
A local official from the company Energie du Mali (EDM) confirmed to AFP that the Timbuktu power plant has been out of service since June 19.
"The authorities are aware of the problem. We received a supply this Friday which, without providing continuous power, will at least allow us to do one to two hours per district," the source told AFP.
In this city in northern Mali, where temperatures exceed 40°C daily this season, the shortage of water and electricity weighs heavily on the population.
"No one can imagine the ordeal we are going through: impossible to protect ourselves from the heat, impossible to get water to wash, cook or drink!", exclaimed a resident contacted by AFP by telephone, speaking anonymously due to the security context.
"We don't know what to do anymore: it's impossible to stay and work in the office, there's nowhere to escape the heat. Even if you have a generator, it's useless since there's no diesel. It's hellish!", added another resident.
"The jihadists have cut off the road and no oil tanker dares to go there," explains a resident.
The people of Timbuktu had to resort to buying fuel on the black market from Algeria, a country with strained diplomatic relations with Mali.
But in recent weeks -- since large-scale coordinated attacks across the country by jihadists and their Tuareg separatist allies in late April -- the army has strengthened its control at the Algerian border and is bombing informal supply convoys.
AFP
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