🔗 Share this article

The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official stated on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and students had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by targeting tankers on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by the military leader, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

However, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.