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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges throughout the country due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on fuel imports imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on state television that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of personnel and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to alleviate the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, notably in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by land routes from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and escalating safety issues.

It explained that the fuel disruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “ability to disturb” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by the military leader, who seized power in a coup in recently.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been deployed in previously to combat the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has hired private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the north and east of the nation remain not under administrative command.