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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on public media that all academic facilities would remain closed until 9 November, explaining that the travel of staff and pupils had been impacted by the restrictions.

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

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the administrative center, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a blockade by striking tankers on major highways.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had previously promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is presently governed by a army council headed by General Goïta, who seized power in a takeover in recently.

The military government had public backing when it assumed control, vowing to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in previously to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.

However, the militant uprising has persisted and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.