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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports enforced by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously reassured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to address the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.