The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that classes could restart on November 10th.
For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.
The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.
It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.
Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The ruling council had popular support when it came to authority, committing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.
Both have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to combat the instability.
However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.