Mali Closes Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Fuel Crisis

The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a restriction on energy resources enforced by militant groups.

Top education official declared on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and increasing protection worries.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, promising to address the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to address the instability.

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