Mali Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and colleges across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister declared on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the movement of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that classes could resume on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by targeting tankers on key routes.
Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The military government had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.
It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.
Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in 2021.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.
These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to address the violence.
Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.
