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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a blockade on energy resources enforced by militant groups.

Minister of Education stated on public media that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

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

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would depart the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a army council led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.

However, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain outside government control.