The West African nation Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Shortage

The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis caused by a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the travel of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

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

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it took power, vowing to address the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.