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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on energy resources enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the travel of personnel and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that educational activities could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by striking tankers on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

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

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is now led by a army council under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it assumed control, committing to address the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to combat the instability.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.