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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the travel of employees and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is now led by a military junta led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, committing to deal with the ongoing instability caused by a autonomy movement in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the current administration has hired foreign fighters to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.