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Mali has closed schools and universities throughout the country due to a severe fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister announced on state television that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the situation so that academic sessions could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after armed groups from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a blockade by striking tankers on key routes.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are brought in by land routes from bordering countries such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now apparently fallen quiet.

The junta-led administration had earlier this month reassured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and escalating security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the power distribution and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council led by the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to address the long-running security crisis triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by extremist groups.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has employed private military contractors to tackle the instability.

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