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Mali has closed educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on energy resources imposed by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the movement of staff and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by targeting fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, 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.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the intensifying energy crisis and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council under the leadership of the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.