Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Shortage

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Prolonged lines have been appearing around fuel pumps in the past few weeks

The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis caused by a restriction on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of staff and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a coup in recently.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain beyond state authority.

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