Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Petrol Emergency

Mali has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.