Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on energy resources imposed by militant groups.
Top education official stated on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been affected by the blockade.
He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to end the situation so that classes could resume on 10 November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking tankers on key routes.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The junta-led administration had previously assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing protection worries.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
Mali is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.
The ruling council had popular support when it came to authority, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.
Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed private military contractors to address the violence.
However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.
