The West African nation Closes Schools and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Emergency

The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a restriction on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of staff and students had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta led by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the north and east of the state remain outside government control.