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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and higher learning institutions across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a restriction on energy resources implemented by militant groups.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the travel of staff and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could restart on 10 November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the main city, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are transported by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously promised the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had disrupted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a armed forces administration headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it took power, committing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain beyond state authority.