At least $50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: that is the king's ransom paid two weeks ago to jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law.

Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic acronym JNIM, has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of "economic jihad".

Its goal: oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali's decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralysing the west African country's economy.

In June, the JNIM threatened to strike any foreign businesses and industries installed in Mali, as well as any enterprise doing business with the Malian government without its "authorisation".

Since then the group -- which hopes to cement its status as one of the most powerful of the jihadist factions to plague the region by expanding towards the Atlantic coast -- has made good on its promise.

It has attacked and burnt tankers carrying vital fuel to landlocked Mali from the coasts of Senegal or Ivory Coast, launched assaults........

© Al Monitor