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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a restriction on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of staff and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing security concerns.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.

The junta had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the junta took over, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain beyond state authority.