Govt closes schools due to fuel scarcity as militants enforce a blockade
Mali closed schools and universities nationwide starting Sunday, October 26, 2025, due to a fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on fuel imports that jihadi militants imposed on the capital.
Education Minister Amadou Sy Savane announced on state television that classes would be suspended for two weeks “due to disruptions in fuel supplies that are affecting the movement of school staff.”
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Militants from the al-Qaida-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin group announced a ban on fuel imports from neighbouring countries into Mali in early September 2025, squeezing the landlocked country’s fragile economy and leaving hundreds of fuel trucks stranded at the border.
Mali, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, has battled an insurgency by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, as well as local rebels. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, they have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance, which analysts say has made little difference.
Militia attacks
In Mali’s capital, Bamako, endless queues have formed in front of gas stations, and the fuel scarcity has impacted the prices of commodities and transportation.
For a country that relies on fuel imports for domestic needs, the blockade is seen as a significant setback for Mali’s military junta. The junta defended its forceful takeover of power in 2020 as a necessary step to end decades of security crises.
The Malian military attempted to escort some fuel trucks from border areas to Bamako. Some trucks arrived, but militants attacked others.
The education minister said Sunday, October 26, 2025, that authorities were “doing everything possible” to restore normal fuel supplies before schools resume classes on November 10, 2025.
Since early September 2025, the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has enforced an embargo on fuel imports to the country, torching fuel tankers almost daily and cutting off key routes to the towns of Kayes and Nioro du Sahel, on the Senegalese border.
The army is escorting convoys in an attempt to ensure the flow of goods, one of which arrived in Bamako on Tuesday, October 7, 2025.
Talks have been underway between Malian intermediaries and the jihadists, so far without success.
“Contact hasn’t been broken, but this isn’t going to be resolved overnight,” a Malian security source close to the discussions told AP News.
