Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Emergency
Mali has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister stated on public media that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by attacking tankers on primary roads.
The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently become deserted.
The military government had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.
The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.