🔗 Share this article

Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a severe energy crisis resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies enforced by militant groups.

Top education official stated on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of personnel and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity 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 tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.