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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister declared on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the movement of personnel and students had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “working tirelessly” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by attacking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta led by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed private military contractors to tackle the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.