The West African nation Suspends Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Emergency
Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education announced on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the transportation of staff and learners had been impacted by the blockade.
He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.
Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.
The military government had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.
The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.
These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.