The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Crisis
Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a embargo on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.
Top education official announced on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of staff and students had been affected by the restrictions.
He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.
For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.
Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The military government had previously reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.
The ruling council had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.
The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
