Mali Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Petrol Shortage
Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education announced on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.
Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The military government had previously promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.
Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.
The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to combat the increasing militant activity.
Both have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.