Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Emergency
The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis caused by a embargo on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and learners had been impacted by the imposed limitations.
He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The ruling military council had previously reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.
It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.
The junta had public backing when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence.
Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.