🔗 Share this article

The landlocked West African country has closed schools and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.

Top education official declared on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the travel of personnel and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the administration were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by striking tankers on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council headed by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had popular support when it came to authority, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in previously to address the escalating insurgency.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.