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Mali has closed educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a restriction by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been sent in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to combat the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.