🔗 Share this article

Mali has suspended schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of staff and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that classes could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in recently.

The junta had public backing when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.