Mali Shuts Down Schools and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Crisis

Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Top education official announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the travel of staff and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

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

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it came to authority, promising to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to address the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.