Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Fuel Emergency
Mali has suspended schools and universities across the nation due to a acute energy crisis triggered by a embargo on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education announced on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the movement of personnel and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.
For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by striking fuel trucks on major highways.
The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The ruling military council had previously promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has continued.
Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.
It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The ruling council had popular support when it took power, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.
Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability.
However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.