A convoy of several dozen tanker trucks was set ablaze Thursday in Mali during an attack attributed to JNIM jihadists, in which several soldiers and assailants were killed, according to local officials, marking a new intensification of such offensives after several weeks of calm.

Mali, a landlocked country dependent on road imports, recently faced severe fuel shortages for several weeks due to jihadist attacks on convoys of tanker trucks supplying it.

Since September, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, have imposed a blockade on several Malian cities and regularly attacked these convoys, suffocating the country's economy all the way to its capital.

But fuel supplies had improved significantly in Bamako since December, allowing the economy to catch its breath.

Attacks against fuel convoys had also decreased in intensity in recent weeks, with the last major attack dating back to early December.

Thursday's attack took place on the road leading from the Senegalese border to the major Malian city of Kayes (west), according to local sources, several of whom reported "dozens" of trucks destroyed.

"It happened between Diboli (a town on the Senegalese border) and Kayes. Three Malian soldiers were killed and four attackers were killed," a local official told AFP. A teacher living in the area estimated that "dozens" of trucks were burned.

"This is a blow for us, but it does not impact distribution or availability. We have a large stock," commented an official from the Malian Office of Petroleum Products to AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

An official from the Kayes customs office also confirmed the attack to AFP, adding that an assessment of the number of trucks impacted was underway and also mentioning the figure of several dozen.

"When we learned of the attack, we launched an appeal to tell drivers to stop in Kidira (the last major Senegalese city before Mali) while waiting for the situation to settle down," Modou Kayeré, a Senegalese and West African transport official, explained to AFP on Friday.

"The alert has not yet been lifted. It will be lifted when safety is ensured. But we have learned that some drivers have already resumed their journeys," he added.

- Ambush -

In a statement seen by AFP, JNIM announced that it had ambushed the Malian army on Thursday between Diboli and Kayes, without mentioning the attack on the tanker trucks.

This route leading to Senegal in the west was generally spared from this type of attack, as fuel convoys came mainly from Ivory Coast in the south.

According to a security source, military escorts of tanker trucks had been suspended for several months on this Senegal-Mali route, concentrating on the route coming from Ivory Coast.

"The authorities thought they had total control over the supply chain with the new convoying plan. They wanted to build up as many stocks as possible before the month of Ramadan," which will begin in mid-February, the source told AFP.

At the height of the crisis last October, the Malian capital had become accustomed to endless queues at petrol stations and the entire economy was running at a standstill.

Escorts from the Russian army and paramilitaries of the Africa Corps, with aerial surveillance, had enabled the arrival of fuel convoys in November in the capital, leading to a lull in the shortage.

The Malian government has also signed an agreement with importers of petroleum products to expedite customs and administrative procedures.

In November, Malian authorities widely reported the arrival from Niger of 82 tankers escorted by the Nigerien army, an ally of the junta in power in Bamako within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), alongside Burkina Faso.

These three countries are led by sovereignist juntas. In December, they announced the creation of a joint armed force to combat the jihadist advance in their countries, although this announcement remains symbolic at this stage.

In the rest of Mali, fuel supplies have also improved in recent weeks, after months of sometimes total shortages in certain areas.