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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.

Top education official declared on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The military government had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing protection worries.

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

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it took power, committing to deal with the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.