Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis caused by a blockade on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could resume on November 10th.
For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by targeting tankers on key routes.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The ruling military council had previously promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.
It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is now led by a army council headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.
The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the north and east of the state remain not under administrative command.
