The West African nation Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Intensifies Petrol Emergency
Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by militant groups.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the travel of personnel and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.
The military government had previously assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.
Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing safety issues.
It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.
These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to tackle the violence.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.
