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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by striking tankers on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

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

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing safety issues.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.