The West African nation Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Crisis

Mali has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could continue on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The military government had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The military government had public backing when it took power, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.