Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Crisis
Mali has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.
Top education official declared on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the travel of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions 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-linked organization imposed a embargo by striking tankers on major highways.
Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.
Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.
The junta-led administration had previously promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.
Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart the country amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing security concerns.
It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.
These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to tackle the instability.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.
