🔗 Share this article

Mali has suspended schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the movement of employees and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain beyond state authority.