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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges countrywide due to a acute fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on fuel imports enforced by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official announced on state television that all education institutions would stay shut until the ninth of November, explaining that the transportation of employees and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He asserted that the government officials were “doing everything possible” to resolve the situation so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network imposed a restriction by striking tankers on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Long queues have been forming around petrol stations in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had previously reassured residents that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital declared that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would depart Mali amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It noted that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it came to authority, vowing to deal with the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

These forces have withdrawn since the new administration came in, and the military government has contracted foreign fighters to tackle the instability.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.