Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Fuel Shortage
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that classes could restart on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The ruling military council had in recent days promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.
It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.
Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in recently.
The junta had popular support when it assumed control, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the instability.
However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.
