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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until November 9th, explaining that the movement of personnel and students had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the situation so that classes could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a embargo by striking fuel trucks on primary roads.

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

Extended lines have been forming around petrol stations in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had previously assured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating security concerns.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a army council headed by the military leader, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.