Mali Suspends Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Emergency
Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.
Top education official declared on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.
He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by attacking tankers on major highways.
Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and CĂ´te d'Ivoire.
Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently grown silent.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.
It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi GoĂŻta, who seized power in a takeover in recently.
The junta had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.
The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.
Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.
