Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Fuel Emergency
The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.
Top education official announced on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the travel of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that classes could resume on 10 November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The military government had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing safety issues.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a army council under the leadership of General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.
The ruling council had popular support when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.
Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.
However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.