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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges across the nation due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a blockade on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official announced on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the transportation of personnel and students had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an jihadist network enforced a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from adjacent nations such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it took power, promising to address the ongoing instability caused by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and French forces had been sent in a decade ago to address the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the military assumed power, and the current administration has employed Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the north and east of the country remain not under administrative command.