The West African nation Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Shortage
Mali has closed schools and universities countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister declared on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the transportation of staff and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.
For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The junta-led administration had in recent days assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.
Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and increasing security concerns.
It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is now led by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to address the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.
Both have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.
However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.
