🔗 Share this article

The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and colleges across the nation due to a acute energy crisis caused by a blockade on fuel imports imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that classes could resume on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by striking tankers on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in previously to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.