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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by jihadist fighters.

Top education official announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, clarifying that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that educational activities could resume on 10 November.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had in recent days assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, promising to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and French forces had been stationed in previously to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the nation remain outside government control.