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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on energy resources enforced by jihadist fighters.

Top education official announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would be inactive until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the imposed limitations.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the main city, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a restriction by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are delivered by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been snaking around gas pumps in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the situation has persisted.

Last week, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and escalating protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a armed forces administration headed by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it assumed control, promising to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

These forces have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has hired private military contractors to tackle the violence.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain beyond state authority.