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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and colleges countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official declared on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by targeting tankers on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations 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 promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating protection worries.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

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

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and extensive regions of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.