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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the situation so that classes could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.