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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a military junta led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.