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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister declared on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by targeting tankers on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by road from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in the capital in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured the public that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the US Embassy in the capital announced that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the intensifying fuel shortage and increasing security concerns.

It noted that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is now led by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The junta had public backing when it took power, promising to tackle the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired foreign fighters to combat the violence.

However, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.