🔗 Share this article

Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, explaining that the travel of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by striking tankers on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The military government had earlier this month reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing security concerns.

It explained that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in previously to deal with the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.