The West African nation Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Intensifies Petrol Crisis
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and universities throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education stated on public media that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by targeting tankers on key routes.
Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The military government had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.
Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.
It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is now led by a military junta headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.
The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.
Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to address the violence.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.
