Mali Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Petrol Shortage
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking tankers on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The junta-led administration had previously promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has continued.
Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing safety issues.
It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.
The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.
However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.
