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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.