Mali Shuts Down Schools and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Emergency
The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the travel of staff and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that classes could resume on 10 November.
For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by striking fuel trucks on major highways.
The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The military government had previously promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating security concerns.
It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.
The junta had public backing when it came to authority, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.
These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.
However, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.
