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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until November 9th, clarifying that the transportation of personnel and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “making every effort” to resolve the crisis so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For several weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by targeting transport vehicles on primary roads.

The country is landlocked, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has continued.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who took control in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to address the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and European soldiers had been sent in previously to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the current administration has employed private military contractors to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.