Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Petrol Shortage
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education announced on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network enforced a embargo by attacking tankers on major highways.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The ruling military council had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.
Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.
It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The junta had popular support when it came to authority, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.
Both have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to address the violence.
However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.
