Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis
Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a blockade on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister stated on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.
The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and CĂ´te d'Ivoire.
Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The ruling military council had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.
It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General GoĂŻta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The ruling council had public backing when it came to authority, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.
These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.