Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.
Minister of Education declared on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has endured.
Last week, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.
It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.
Both have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.