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Mali has suspended educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister stated on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the travel of personnel and pupils had been affected by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a blockade by striking tankers on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are transported by land routes from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously promised the public that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave Mali amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing security concerns.

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

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been deployed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have departed since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.

However, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain outside government control.