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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by attacking tankers on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a army council led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in 2013 to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.