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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of staff and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to combat the instability.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.