🔗 Share this article Mali Suspends Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Worsens Petrol Shortage Extended lines have been snaking around petrol stations in recent weeks The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies enforced by Islamist insurgents. Minister of Education declared on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the travel of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the blockade. He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate 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 main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on major highways. Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation. Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent. The junta-led administration had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured. Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing safety issues. It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms. Mali is now led by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021. The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters. The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency. These forces have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to combat the instability. Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.