Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Crisis

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Prolonged lines have been forming around gas stations in the past few weeks

Mali has suspended schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a embargo on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the movement of staff and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.

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