🔗 Share this article

Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by targeting tankers on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

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

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted 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 led by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

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