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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute petrol shortage resulting from a embargo on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official stated on state television that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the transportation of staff and learners had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to resolve the crisis so that classes could resume on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by targeting transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been winding around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had previously promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their families would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a army council led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, committing to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a independence uprising in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in previously to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have departed since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.