Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Crisis
Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister stated on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of employees and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by striking fuel trucks on primary roads.
The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.
Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing protection worries.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is now led by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in recently.
The junta had popular support when it assumed control, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.
Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to address the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
