Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Emergency

The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the transportation of staff and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a takeover in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the ongoing instability caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.