🔗 Share this article

Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a embargo on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of personnel and students had been impacted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a restriction by striking tankers on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

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

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.