The West African nation Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Prolonged lines have been appearing around fuel pumps in recent weeks

The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a embargo on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the travel of staff and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave the country amid the worsening energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.

John Bush
John Bush

A tech enthusiast with over a decade of experience in gaming industry analysis, specializing in slot machine innovations and digital trends.