Mali Closes Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Shortage
Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a critical energy crisis caused by a embargo on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education stated on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the movement of employees and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that educational activities could resume on 10 November.
For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The ruling military council had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has continued.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing safety issues.
It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The military government had popular support when it came to authority, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.
Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.