Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Petrol Crisis
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a embargo on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.
Top education official announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of staff and students had been impacted by the restrictions.
He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.
For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.
Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and CĂ´te d'Ivoire.
Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city 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 the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.
It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.
Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi GoĂŻta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.
The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.
Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability.
Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.
