Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute energy crisis triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.
The Education Minister stated on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been impacted by the blockade.
He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.
For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.
The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.
Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.
The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.
It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.
The West African nation is now led by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.
The junta had popular support when it took power, vowing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to combat the increasing militant activity.
Both have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.
However, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.
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