The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute energy crisis triggered by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.
Minister of Education stated on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been affected by the blockade.
He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.
For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.
Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.
Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.
The junta-led administration had in recent days promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.
In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.
It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.
The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.
The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.
The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.
Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the violence.
However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.
