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The landlocked West African country has suspended schools and colleges across the nation due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Minister of Education stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, explaining that the movement of staff and pupils had been affected by the imposed limitations.

He asserted that the authorities were “making every effort” to end the situation so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For several weeks, Mali has been facing a petrol crisis, especially in the capital Bamako, after militants from an jihadist network enforced a blockade by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

Mali is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Lengthy waits have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The military government had earlier this month assured residents that it was only a passing concern, but the emergency has continued.

Recently, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart Mali amid the intensifying petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It said that the fuel disruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “potential to disrupt” the broader protection environment in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a military overthrow in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it assumed control, vowing to address the long-running security crisis prompted by a independence uprising in the northern region by Tuareg communities, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and French forces had been deployed in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to tackle the violence.

Nevertheless, the Islamist rebellion has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.