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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the situation so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a embargo by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently become deserted.

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

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

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

The junta had popular support when it assumed control, promising to address the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.