Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Shortage
Mali has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.
Top education official stated on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the movement of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.
For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The military government had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.
Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing safety issues.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
Mali is now led by a army council led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.
The military government had popular support when it took power, committing to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.
The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.
Both have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the violence.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain beyond state authority.