Compare the article that appeared today, 1 May 2026, on the BBC website with QUAKE, WAVE, WAR, Chapter 7 page 125 showing my photographs of Bamako, Mali.

‘Mali’s capital city Bamako – a major West African hub and home to more than three million people – is under a partial blockade by Islamist militants, days after the country’s defence minister was assassinated there.

“Our army isn’t capable of protecting us, how are we going to get back home?” a mother-of-two told the BBC, unable to re-enter Bamako after visiting her parents out of town.

She and many others have been stranded on the Bamako-Kéniéba highway, a major road out of the capital, for almost a day.’