Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Crisis
Mali has closed educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on fuel imports implemented by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of employees and learners had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.
The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The junta-led administration had previously promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.
Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.
It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is now led by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.
The military government had popular support when it assumed control, committing to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.
The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to address the violence.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
