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Mali has temporarily halted educational facilities and colleges throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage triggered by a blockade on energy resources imposed by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister stated on public media that all education institutions would stay shut until 9 November, explaining that the transportation of staff and students had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He stated that the administration were “making every effort” to end the situation so that classes could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a energy deficit, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization enforced a blockade by attacking tankers on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by land routes from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and the neighboring nation.

Extended lines have been forming around fuel outlets in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's typically busy streets have now reportedly become deserted.

The ruling military council had previously assured the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the situation has endured.

Last week, the US Embassy in Bamako declared that non-critical embassy personnel and their relatives would evacuate Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and escalating safety issues.

It said that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “potential to disrupt” the general safety conditions in unpredictable ways.

The West African nation is presently governed by a military junta under the leadership of the military leader, who assumed authority in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it assumed control, promising to deal with the ongoing instability prompted by a separatist rebellion in the northern region by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been deployed in previously to address the growing rebellion.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the military government has employed private military contractors to address the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern zones of the nation remain outside government control.