The West African nation Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis

Mali has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute energy crisis resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of staff and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the crisis so that classes could resume on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The military government had in recent days reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.