France, Oct. 10 -- Mali's military junta is struggling to ease a jihadist fuel blockade as talks with al-Qaeda-linked militants inch forward- amid petrol shortages and growing public frustration.

Since early September, the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) have enforced an embargo on fuel imports to the country, torching fuel tankers almost daily and cutting off key routes to the towns of Kayes and Nioro du Sahel, on the Senegalese border.

The army is escorting convoys in an attempt to ensure the flow of goods, one of which arrived in Bamako on Tuesday, 7 October.

Talks have been under way between Malian intermediaries and the jihadists,so far without success.

"Contact hasn't been broken, but this isn't...