The West African nation Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Emergency
Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of staff and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.
For weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The ruling military council had previously assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would depart Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.
However, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain beyond state authority.