🔗 Share this article

Mali has closed schools and universities countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a blockade on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of personnel and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in previously to address the increasing militant activity.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the ruling council has employed foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.