Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Crisis
Mali has suspended schools and universities countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.
The Education Minister stated on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by striking fuel trucks on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and increasing safety issues.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.
The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to address the violence.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain beyond state authority.
