Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Worsens Petrol Emergency

Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a embargo on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the movement of employees and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by targeting tankers on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal 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 fallen quiet.

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

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing security concerns.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it took power, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.