Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Fuel Crisis
Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education stated on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of personnel and learners had been affected by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.
For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.
The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The military government had in recent days assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.
In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.
It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.
Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.
The junta had popular support when it assumed control, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.
These forces have left since the junta took over, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.
However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.