Mali's junta suspends French TV channels over alleged false reports about fuel blockade

Mali's ruling junta suspended two French television channels on Friday for broadcasting alleged false information on a fuel blockaed imposes by the al-Qaeda linked group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Musilimin (JNIM).

Mali’s High Authority for Communication said in a letter to image distributors in Mali dated 13 November and made public on Friday that it suspended TF1 and LCI, claiming the two private TV channels made "unverified claims and falsehoods" in a broadcast on 9 November.

"LCI and TF1 television services have been removed from your packages until further notice," the document reads.

The letter said the regulatory body disputes three passages of the two channels' broadcast: "the junta has banned the sale of fuel," "(the regions of) Kayes and Nioro are completely under blockade," and "the terrorists are now close to bringing down the capital (Bamako)."

Since September, the JNIM group has imposed a blockade on fuel entering Mali, a landlocked country.

In recent weeks, the fuel shortage caused by the blockade has created long lines at gas stations and further deteriorated the security situation in the country.

Several Western embassies, notably those of the United States and France, have asked their citizens to leave Mali.

Mali, alongside its neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, is ruled by military leaders who took power by force in recent years, pledging to provide more security to citizens.

But the security situation in the Sahel region has worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and a record number of civilians killed both by Islamic militants and government forces.