🔗 Share this article

The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had popular support when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.