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Mali has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on fuel imports imposed by militant groups.

Top education official stated on public media that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the movement of employees and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

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

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The military government had earlier this month reassured citizens that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would leave the country amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, promising to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and France's military had been deployed in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has contracted private military contractors to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.