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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the crisis so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by striking tankers on key routes.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been winding around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The military government had previously reassured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would depart the country amid the worsening energy crisis and growing safety issues.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a military junta headed by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The junta had public backing when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the junta took over, and the ruling council has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

However, the militant uprising has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.