Mali Suspends Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and colleges across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.
Minister of Education stated on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a restriction by striking fuel trucks on primary roads.
Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The junta-led administration had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.
Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.
It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.
The ruling council had popular support when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.
These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.
