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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of staff and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to combat the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain not under administrative command.