Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Shortage

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Extended queues have been forming around fuel pumps in the past few weeks

Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of employees and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of General Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.

Jeffrey Thomas
Jeffrey Thomas

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