The West African nation Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Petrol Crisis
Mali has suspended educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
Top education official declared on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of employees and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that classes could resume on 10 November.
For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.
Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The junta-led administration had previously reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.
Last week, the US Embassy in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The junta had popular support when it assumed control, committing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.
Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.