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Mali has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the transportation of staff and pupils had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the situation so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a restriction by targeting tankers on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, vowing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in 2013 to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to address the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.