Mali Closes Schools and Universities as Islamist Militant Restrictions Exacerbates Petrol Emergency

Long queues at petrol stations in Mali
Prolonged queues have been appearing around petrol stations in the last few days

The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a critical energy crisis triggered by a restriction on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of employees and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The military government had previously promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been stationed in previously to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.

However, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.

Kellie Johnson
Kellie Johnson

Elara Vance is a data engineer with over 8 years of experience in building scalable data pipelines and analytics platforms, passionate about sharing knowledge in the tech community.