🔗 Share this article The West African nation Closes Schools and Universities as Jihadist Restrictions Exacerbates Fuel Crisis Lengthy lines have been forming around petrol stations in the past few weeks The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents. Minister of Education stated on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, explaining that the transportation of employees and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions. He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November. For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by striking fuel trucks on key routes. The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation. Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet. The junta-led administration had previously promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured. In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns. It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways. Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently. The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, promising to address the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants. The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in previously to combat the increasing militant activity. The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability. Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.