The West African nation Closes Schools and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Fuel Crisis
The landlocked West African country has closed schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.
The Education Minister declared on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of staff and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.
He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.
For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.
The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The ruling military council had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
Mali is currently ruled by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.
The junta had widespread approval when it took power, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.
Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to combat the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.
