Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Petrol Shortage
Mali has suspended schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official announced on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of staff and students had been disrupted by the blockade.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could resume on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by striking transport vehicles on major highways.
The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.
The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.
Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.
The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.
The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.
However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.
