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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

The Education Minister declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the movement of personnel and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the crisis so that classes could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by targeting tankers on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, 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 forming around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

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

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

However, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.