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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all academic facilities would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the movement of employees and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that classes could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all energy resources are transported by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.