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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a severe petrol shortage caused by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and students had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to end the crisis so that classes could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, particularly in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The military government had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would depart the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in recently.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern region by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in a decade ago to deal with the increasing militant activity.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired private military contractors to address the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.