Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Emergency
Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources imposed by militant groups.
Minister of Education announced on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that classes could resume on 10 November.
For weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by striking tankers on major highways.
The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.
The military government had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.
Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.
It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in recently.
The ruling council had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.
Both have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.