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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a blockade on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all energy resources are delivered by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in 2021.

The junta had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

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

The international troops have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has employed private military contractors to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the country remain beyond state authority.