The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by militant groups.
Top education official announced on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been disrupted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.
For several weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.
Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The military government had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is now led by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.
The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.
However, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
