The West African nation Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Petrol Crisis
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a embargo on energy resources imposed by militant groups.
Top education official announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the transportation of staff and learners had been affected by the restrictions.
He stated that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.
For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by attacking tankers on primary roads.
The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The ruling military council had previously assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.
In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.
It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.
Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The military government had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.
These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.