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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and universities across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage resulting from a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of employees and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to end the situation so that classes could restart on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by striking transport vehicles on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in recent weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had earlier this month promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that secondary diplomatic employees and their dependents would leave the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

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

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

The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to tackle the ongoing instability caused by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and France's military had been sent in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to address the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has persisted and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain not under administrative command.