Postcard from Kayes
ALL roads to Bamako are henceforth combat zones.” That was the announcement on 12 October, attributed to one Nabi Diarra, spokesman for Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, aka JNIM, the jihadist insurgents and terrorists linked to al-Qaeda who are wreaking havoc across the Sahel.
Kayes (pronounced “kai”), western Mali, near the Senegalese border, is the gateway to the Sahel. We’re 800km from the port of Dakar, from where vehicles carrying fuel and merchandise worth almost $1bn a year take the long road to Bamako, our capital. In Kayes, they cross the bridge on the Senegal River that bisects our town.