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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by militant groups.

Top education official stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would remain closed until November 9th, noting that the travel of employees and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “making every effort” to resolve the situation so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a fuel shortage, notably in the main city, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

The country is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had previously promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has persisted.

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had widespread approval when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted private military contractors to tackle the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.