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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on energy resources implemented by jihadist fighters.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, clarifying that the travel of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by striking fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave the country amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The junta had popular support when it came to authority, committing to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been deployed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.