Mali blocks Moroccan trucks as attacks threaten trade route to Bamako

Malian authorities have temporarily stopped Moroccan trucks from entering the country as armed groups increasingly target freight routes supplying Bamako, a Moroccan transport-industry source told Hespress.

The precautionary restriction follows attacks on Moroccan cargo vehicles and a wider campaign by militants against the roads connecting landlocked Mali with neighbouring countries.

The source, from the General Union of International and Domestic Transport Professionals, said some Moroccan drivers were still attempting to enter Mali despite warnings that the route remained unsafe.

Malian authorities were turning them back to prevent further attacks or abductions, the source said. Neither the Malian government nor Morocco’s foreign ministry had publicly announced the measure.

Six Moroccan trucks carrying food towards Bamako were attacked and burned in May on a road near Mali’s border with Mauritania, although their drivers escaped unharmed. Eight Moroccan drivers were also reported stranded in the country that month as fighting disrupted transport corridors.

The transport source said some foreign trucks were travelling in military-escorted convoys, typically protected by security vehicles at the front and rear. Such escorts reduced the risk but could not guarantee protection against ambushes or attacks involving heavy gunfire.

Mali’s army escorted a convoy of 940 food and fuel trucks to Bamako between June 23 and 29 as militant attacks continued to place pressure on western supply routes.

Moroccan hauliers are now unloading some goods at the Guerguerat border crossing rather than continuing through Mauritania into Mali, the source said. Others are diverting through Senegal, a longer and more difficult route.

The disruption affects one of Morocco’s main overland commercial links with West Africa and underlines the growing cost of insecurity across the Sahel.

Four Moroccan truck drivers abducted while travelling through the region in January 2025 were held for months by Islamic State militants before being released in Mali following Moroccan-Malian security coordination.