Mali Closes Schools and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Exacerbates Petrol Shortage

Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of staff and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would depart Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.