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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical energy crisis caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

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

For weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The military government had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The ruling council had popular support when it assumed control, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.