Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Petrol Crisis
The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
Top education official announced on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The military government had in recent days promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.
In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would depart Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.
It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a military junta headed by the military leader, who took control in a coup in two years ago.
The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in previously to combat the growing rebellion.
Both have left since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.