The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Crisis
Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister stated on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of staff and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in 2021.
The military government had popular support when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.
These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed private military contractors to combat the instability.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.
