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Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the travel of staff and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He asserted that the administration were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by attacking tankers on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would depart the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a army council 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 deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been stationed in previously to address the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed foreign fighters to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.