The West African nation Shuts Down Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Emergency

Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister declared on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

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

For weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently grown silent.

The military government had previously assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would depart the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to address the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.