🔗 Share this article

The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been impacted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had previously promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to address the violence.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.