Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a embargo on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.
Top education official stated on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of staff and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.
He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking tankers on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly become deserted.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.
In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.
It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The military government had popular support when it took power, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.
Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.
However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.