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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Top education official stated on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would depart Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and increasing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council led by General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.

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