The West African nation Closes Schools and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Crisis
Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on energy resources implemented by militant groups.
The Education Minister announced on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the movement of employees and learners had been affected by the blockade.
He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by targeting tankers on major highways.
Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The military government had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.
It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.
The junta had popular support when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.
These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired 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 outside government control.
