🔗 Share this article

Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has endured.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain beyond state authority.