🔗 Share this article The West African nation Closes Educational Institutions and Higher Education Centers as Jihadist Restrictions Intensifies Fuel Crisis Prolonged lines have been appearing around gas stations in recent weeks The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical energy crisis resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups. Top education official declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been affected by the blockade. He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could continue on 10 November. For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads. The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire. Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly fallen quiet. The ruling military council had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted. In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing safety issues. It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners. Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently. The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants. The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been stationed in previously to address the growing rebellion. Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to tackle the insecurity. However, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.