Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Shortage

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Extended lines have been snaking around gas stations in the past few weeks

The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

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

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

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

Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would depart the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

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

Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, committing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to address the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.

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