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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education announced on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now apparently become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in recently.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the current administration 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 country remain not under administrative command.