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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on public media that all academic facilities would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

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

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had previously promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has continued.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been sent in previously to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.