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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of staff and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously promised citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been deployed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.