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Mali has suspended educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the travel of personnel and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after militants from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The ruling council had public backing when it took power, committing to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.