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Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the transportation of staff and learners had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

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

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

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

The military government had earlier this month reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart the country amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration has hired Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.