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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could restart on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, particularly in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly become deserted.

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

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to address the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.