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Mali has temporarily halted schools and colleges countrywide due to a critical petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official declared on state television that all academic facilities would stay shut until November 9th, noting that the movement of personnel and students had been affected by the restrictions.

He stated that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to resolve the situation so that classes could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization initiated a blockade by striking fuel trucks on major highways.

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

Long queues have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The ruling military council had earlier this month assured the public that it was only a passing concern, but the crisis has continued.

Last week, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their dependents would evacuate the country amid the deteriorating energy crisis and increasing safety issues.

It said that the energy interruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta headed by the military leader, who seized power in a takeover in recently.

The ruling council had public backing when it assumed control, promising to tackle the protracted safety emergency triggered by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by jihadist fighters.

The international UN troops and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

These forces have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has endured and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain not under administrative command.