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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and learners had been affected by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could continue on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, especially in the main city, after insurgents from an jihadist network imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are transported by road from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the situation has persisted.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had disrupted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had public backing when it took power, committing to deal with the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in 2013 to deal with the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.