Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Petrol Emergency

The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a blockade on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, explaining that the movement of staff and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by targeting tankers on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

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

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.