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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the travel of employees and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

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

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had in recent days promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to tackle the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

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

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.