Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Shortage

Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by militant groups.

Top education official stated on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by the military leader, who took control in a takeover in recently.

The junta had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.