The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Worsens Petrol Shortage
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of staff and students had been affected by the blockade.
He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to end the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.
The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from bordering countries 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 apparently become deserted.
The military government had previously reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.
Recently, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.
It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in recently.
The military government had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.
The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.
Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to combat the violence.
However, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.
