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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on petroleum supplies imposed by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, noting that the travel of staff and learners had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He emphasized that the authorities were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could resume on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by attacking transport vehicles on major highways.

The country is without coastal access, so all fuel supplies are delivered by truck from bordering countries such as Senegal and the neighboring nation.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

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

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would evacuate the country amid the worsening energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the overall security situation in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta headed by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The military government had public backing when it came to authority, vowing to tackle the long-running security crisis caused by a autonomy movement in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The international UN troops and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to tackle the violence.

Nonetheless, the militant uprising has continued and large parts of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.