Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Shortage

The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the transportation of employees and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.