The West African nation Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Emergency
Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.
The Education Minister stated on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of employees and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.
For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The military government had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.
Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and escalating safety issues.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a army council led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The junta had popular support when it took power, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.
These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.
However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain beyond state authority.
