Mali Shuts Down Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Emergency
Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.
Top education official declared on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of staff and learners had been affected by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.
In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would depart the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.
Mali is now led by a military junta headed by the military leader, who took control in a takeover in two years ago.
The ruling council had public backing when it took power, promising to address the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.
Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
