The West African nation Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Worsens Fuel Emergency
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the transportation of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by striking transport vehicles on major highways.
The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The ruling military council had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would depart the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.
It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.
These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to address the insecurity.
However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.
