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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been stationed in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.