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Mali has closed educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a restriction on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by targeting tankers on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

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

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to combat the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.