Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Shortage
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies enforced by militant groups.
The Education Minister declared on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of employees and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.
For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing protection worries.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
Mali is now led by a army council led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in 2021.
The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
