🔗 Share this article The West African nation Shuts Down Educational Institutions and Universities as Jihadist Blockade Intensifies Petrol Crisis Lengthy lines have been appearing around petrol stations in the last few days Mali has closed educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by militant groups. Minister of Education declared on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade. He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the situation so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November. For weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on major highways. Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation. Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet. The junta-led administration had previously reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted. Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing security concerns. It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners. Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a takeover in two years ago. The ruling council had public backing when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by extremist groups. The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion. The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to tackle the violence. However, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.