Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Emergency
The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently become deserted.
The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.
It said that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.
Mali is now led by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in two years ago.
The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.
These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain outside government control.