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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe energy crisis triggered by a embargo on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could continue on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

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

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired private military contractors to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.