Mali’s media regulator has suspended French broadcasters LCI and TF1 over allegedly broadcasting false information on a fuel blockade imposed by an al-Qaeda linked armed group.
TF1 is a French commercial television station that broadcasts in several countries, and LCI, La Chaine Info, is a French free-to-air news channel that is also part of the TF1 group.
Mali’s High Authority for Communication (HAC) said in a letter to image distributors in Mali, dated November 13 and made public on Friday, that it had suspended TF1 and LCI, claiming the two private TV channels had made “unverified claims and falsehoods” in a broadcast on November 9.
“LCI and TF1 television services have been removed from your packages until further notice,” the document read.
The letter said the authority disputed three passages in broadcasts by the two channels, specifically that “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].”
The channels have not been accessible in Mali since Thursday evening, a journalist for the AFP news agency reported.
Since September, the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) group, linked to al-Qaeda and primarily operating in Mali, has imposed a blockade on fuel entering the landlocked country, by sealing off major highways used by tankers to transport fuel from neighbouring Senegal and the Ivory Coast.
In recent weeks, fuel shortages caused by the blockade have created long lines at gas stations and further deteriorated the security situation in the country.
People gather at a petrol station in Bamako, Mali, on November 1, 2025, amid ongoing fuel shortages caused by a blockade imposed by armed fighters in early September [Reuters]
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 governed 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 has worsened since the militaries took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed both by armed groups and government forces.
All three countries have withdrawn from regional and international organisations in recent months, while forming their own bloc known as the Alliance of Sahel States.
The three West African countries have also wound back defence cooperation with Western powers, most notably their former colonial ruler, France, in favour of closer ties with Russia, including Niger nationalising a uranium mine previously operated by French nuclear firm Orano.
Within the three countries, the military governments are fighting armed groups that control swaths of territory and have staged attacks on army posts.
Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups have accused the fighters, the military and partner forces of Burkina Faso and Mali of possible atrocities.
