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Mali has suspended schools and colleges throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on petroleum supplies enforced by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could continue on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The military government had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has endured.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would depart the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.