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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the movement of personnel and learners had been impacted by the blockade.

He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the emergency so that educational activities could continue on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by striking transport vehicles on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are transported by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The military government had previously assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.

Recently, the American diplomatic mission in the capital declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening fuel shortage and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had disrupted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in two years ago.

The junta had public backing when it came to authority, committing to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain not under administrative command.