Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Emergency
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.
Minister of Education announced on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of employees and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.
The ruling military council had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.
Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing security concerns.
It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a military junta headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.
The junta had popular support when it assumed control, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to combat the increasing militant activity.
Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence.
However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.
