The landlocked West African country has closed schools and universities countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.
The Education Minister announced on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of employees and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.
He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.
For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by striking tankers on major highways.
The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.
The ruling military council had previously promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.
Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries.
It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.
Mali is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.
The military government had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.
The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.
The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to address the insecurity.
Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.
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