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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on energy resources implemented by militant groups.

Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of employees and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had previously promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.