Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Shortage
The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis caused by a embargo on energy resources enforced by militant groups.
Top education official announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and learners had been impacted by the imposed limitations.
He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on November 10th.
For weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on key routes.
The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.
The ruling military council had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.
Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.
It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a coup in recently.
The military government had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.
These forces have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.
