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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.