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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the movement of employees and pupils had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

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

The military government had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a army council led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in previously to address the growing rebellion.

Both have left since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to address the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.