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Mali has closed schools and universities throughout the country due to a critical fuel scarcity triggered by a blockade on petroleum supplies implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official announced on state television that all education institutions would be inactive until the ninth of November, noting that the transportation of staff and pupils had been impacted by the imposed limitations.

He stated that the authorities were “doing everything possible” to end the crisis so that academic sessions could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate enforced a embargo by striking tankers on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all petroleum products are brought in by truck from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Lengthy waits have been forming around gas pumps in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now allegedly grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised residents that it was only a short-term problem, but the emergency has endured.

In the past few days, the American diplomatic mission in the capital stated that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would leave Mali amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It said that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “ability to disturb” the broader protection environment in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is currently ruled by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a takeover in 2021.

The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in a decade ago to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has contracted Russian mercenaries to address the violence.

However, the militant uprising has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain not under administrative command.