Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, noting that the movement of staff and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that classes could restart on 10 November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The ruling military council had in recent days promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.
In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.
Both have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
