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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until November 9th, noting that the transportation of employees and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that classes could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by striking tankers on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had previously promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is now led by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it took power, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain not under administrative command.