Month-long blackout leaves Mali's Mopti in the dark amid jihadist fuel blockade

View of the city of Mopti, in central Mali, where a fuel blockade has left residents largely without power for the past month. © Getty Images/Friedrich Schmidt

The Malian city of Mopti has been plunged into darkness for weeks as a fuel blockade by jihadists tied to al-Qaeda cripples power supplies.

For a month now, the people of Mopti – one of Mali’s largest and most vibrant cities – have been living in darkness. The lights went out in early October, and they have not come back on since.