Mali Closes Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on energy resources implemented by militant groups.
The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and learners had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on key routes.
The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The military government had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.
It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.
The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to address the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.
Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.
However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.