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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and universities countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Top education official announced on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the travel of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a embargo by striking tankers on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has endured.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and escalating security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted foreign fighters to address the instability.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.