Mali Closes Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Emergency

The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had popular support when it came to authority, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in previously to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.