🔗 Share this article Mali Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Universities as Islamist Militant Blockade Exacerbates Fuel Emergency Prolonged lines have been snaking around fuel pumps in recent weeks Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a restriction on energy resources imposed by militant groups. Minister of Education announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been impacted by the blockade. He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November. For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads. The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation. Extended lines have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted. The military government had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted. Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing security concerns. It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms. Mali is now led by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021. The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters. The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in previously to address the increasing militant activity. Both have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to combat the insecurity. Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain outside government control.