Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Emergency
Mali has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on energy resources implemented by militant groups.
Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on the tenth of November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.
Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.
The military government had previously reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating safety issues.
It said that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.
Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
