Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Shortage

Mali has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the emergency so that classes could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, committing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in previously to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.