The West African nation Closes Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Worsens Fuel Emergency
Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official declared on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the transportation of employees and pupils had been affected by the blockade.
He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.
The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The military government had previously reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing safety issues.
It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.
The military government had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The international UN troops and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.
These forces have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.
Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.
