Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Petrol Emergency
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.
The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and students had been disrupted by the blockade.
He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by striking fuel trucks on key routes.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.
Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The military government had in recent days reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing security concerns.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.
The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.
These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.
However, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.
