US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on Tuesday that he spoke with Mali's foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, to discuss shared security interests in the region.

In a post on X, Landau also said that the United States "commends the armed forces of Mali in their fight against Islamic extremist militants (JNIM)."

In early September, the al Qaeda-linked terrorist group announced a blockade on fuel imports to the landlocked West African country. The group has since attacked convoys of fuel tankers attempting to enter the country or reach the capital, Bamako.

Last week, the US State Department ordered non-emergency employees and their family members to leave Mali due to safety risks.

The terrorists' two-month-old fuel blockade has all but paralysed Mali's capital. It has been operating for months within 50 km (30 miles) of Bamako, but currently has neither the intention nor the military capability to seize the city of 4 million people, which it briefly attacked last year.