Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Shortage
The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education declared on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the movement of personnel and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by striking transport vehicles on key routes.
Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.
The military government had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.
Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.
It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a military junta led by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The ruling council had public backing when it took power, committing to address the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.
The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to combat the instability.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.
