🔗 Share this article

Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, promising to deal with the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.