Mali Closes Schools and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Blockade Intensifies Fuel Shortage

Mali has closed schools and universities across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister declared on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of staff and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the administration were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.

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