Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
Mali has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a restriction on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister announced on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the travel of staff and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The military government had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.
In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.
It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is now led by a military junta led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.
The military government had public backing when it took power, committing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence.
However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.