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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies implemented by militant groups.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the transportation of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the crisis so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by targeting tankers on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the current administration has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.