Mali Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Petrol Emergency
The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and colleges across the nation due to a acute energy crisis caused by a restriction on energy resources enforced by militant groups.
The Education Minister announced on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, explaining that the movement of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.
He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.
For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by targeting tankers on key routes.
The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and CĂ´te d'Ivoire.
Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The ruling military council had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.
It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.
The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by Gen Assimi GoĂŻta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.
The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in previously to address the escalating insurgency.
Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.
However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
