The West African nation Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Fuel Emergency
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.
He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.
The ruling military council had in recent days assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.
Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.
It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The ruling council had popular support when it took power, promising to address the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.
These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.
However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.
