Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Petrol Crisis
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education declared on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the travel of staff and students had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by striking tankers on primary roads.
The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The military government had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has persisted.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.
It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The junta had popular support when it came to authority, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a autonomy movement in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.
Both have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
