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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the transportation of staff and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

The military government had previously assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the worsening energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.