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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of staff and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

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

The military government had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has employed private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.