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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a restriction on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of staff and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it took power, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.