Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Shortage

Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

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

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by targeting tankers on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta headed by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.