🔗 Share this article

The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a critical energy crisis caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by striking fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, committing to deal with the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.