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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education declared on national broadcast that all education institutions would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the transportation of staff and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to end the situation so that educational activities could resume on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and increasing protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had public backing when it took power, committing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the north 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 combat the increasing militant activity.

These forces have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the current administration has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.