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The landlocked West African country has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a blockade on fuel imports implemented by jihadist fighters.

Minister of Education declared on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until November 9th, noting that the travel of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that classes could continue on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

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

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of General Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to combat the instability.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.