The West African nation Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November.
For weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.
The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would depart the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing security concerns.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.
The junta had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.
Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to tackle the violence.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.
