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Mali has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on fuel imports implemented by militant groups.

Minister of Education stated on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of personnel and learners had been impacted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by targeting tankers on major highways.

Mali is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, committing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

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

Both have left since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.