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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the travel of staff and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The military government had previously assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, promising to address the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in previously to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed private military contractors to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.