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Mali has closed schools and universities countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a embargo on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all learning centers would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of employees and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by striking transport vehicles on key routes.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The military government had in recent days assured citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, committing to deal with the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the escalating insurgency.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

However, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain beyond state authority.