The West African nation Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
Mali has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education announced on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For several weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, particularly in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.
The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.
Last week, the US Embassy in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.
It explained that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.
The military government had public backing when it assumed control, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in previously to combat the growing rebellion.
Both have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to combat the violence.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.
