Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Petrol Crisis
Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.
The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The military government had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.
In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.
The junta had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to address the growing rebellion.
Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
