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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and students had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration led by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.