Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Petrol Shortage

Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of employees and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could continue on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by attacking tankers on primary roads.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.