🔗 Share this article Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Islamist Militant Restrictions Worsens Petrol Crisis Prolonged queues have been forming around petrol stations in the last few days The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and universities countrywide due to a critical energy crisis caused by a blockade on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters. Minister of Education stated on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of personnel and students had been impacted by the blockade. He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that educational activities could resume on 10 November. For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by attacking tankers on major highways. The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire. Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet. The military government had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted. Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries. It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms. Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago. The ruling council had public backing when it came to authority, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups. The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency. These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to address the instability. Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.