Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Emergency

The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, committing to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.