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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage caused by a embargo on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education announced on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until 9 November, noting that the movement of staff and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on 10 November.

For weeks, Mali has been experiencing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are transported by truck from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been winding around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly grown silent.

The junta-led administration had in recent days assured residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the crisis has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the petroleum supply issues had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a military junta led by General Goïta, who seized power in a coup in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a autonomy movement in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have left since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to combat the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain outside government control.