Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Shortage

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Extended queues have been snaking around fuel pumps in recent weeks

Mali has suspended educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis caused by a blockade on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of employees and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by attacking tankers on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had previously reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.

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