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The landlocked West African country has suspended educational facilities and universities countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on energy resources enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on public media that all learning centers would stay shut until November 9th, clarifying that the movement of employees and pupils had been disrupted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could resume on the tenth of November.

For several weeks, Mali has been grappling with a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a embargo by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had previously promised residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has persisted.

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had affected the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in recently.

The ruling council had popular support when it came to authority, committing to tackle the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in 2013 to address the increasing militant activity.

Both have departed since the military assumed power, and the military government has employed Russian mercenaries to tackle the instability.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.