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The landlocked West African country has temporarily halted schools and universities across the nation due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on petroleum supplies enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all learning centers would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of personnel and students had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the main city, after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate initiated a blockade by attacking tankers on key routes.

The country is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are delivered by road from neighboring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly become deserted.

The junta-led administration had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has persisted.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would evacuate the country amid the intensifying energy crisis and growing protection worries.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is now led by a armed forces administration under the leadership of the military leader, who seized power in a coup in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, vowing to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a independence uprising in the northern territories by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then co-opted by jihadist fighters.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been sent in a decade ago to address the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to address the violence.

However, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the state remain outside government control.