Mali Shuts Down Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Petrol Emergency

The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of employees and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that classes could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously assured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in previously to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain not under administrative command.