Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Blockade Worsens Petrol Shortage

Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The military government had in recent days promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.