The West African nation Suspends Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis
Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education declared on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.
For weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.
Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.
The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing security concerns.
It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.
The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.
However, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.
