Mali has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.
Top education official declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been affected by the blockade.
He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that classes could continue on 10 November.
For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by targeting tankers on major highways.
Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.
Extended lines have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.
The ruling military council had previously promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.
In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.
It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.
Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.
The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.
The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.
However, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.
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