The West African nation Suspends Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Shortage
The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a blockade on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education stated on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of employees and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.
He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that classes could continue on November 10th.
For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by attacking tankers on primary roads.
The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The military government had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.
It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.
Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by General GoĂŻta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.
The military government had public backing when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.
Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.
Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.