Mali Suspends Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Emergency
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on energy resources implemented by militant groups.
Top education official stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of staff and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.
For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.
The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and CĂ´te d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The ruling military council had in recent days assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.
Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating safety issues.
It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi GoĂŻta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.
The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.
The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to address the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.
