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Mali has temporarily halted schools and universities across the nation due to a severe petrol shortage triggered by a restriction on fuel imports enforced by militant groups.

Top education official declared on public media that all education institutions would remain closed until the ninth of November, noting that the movement of staff and pupils had been disrupted by the restrictions.

He asserted that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could continue on November 10th.

For several weeks, the nation has been experiencing a petrol crisis, notably in the administrative center, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda-linked organization imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is without coastal access, so all energy resources are transported by truck from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's usually crowded streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

The military government had earlier this month promised the public that it was only a temporary issue, but the crisis has persisted.

Recently, the United States diplomatic office in the capital announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave the country amid the deteriorating petrol scarcity and growing security concerns.

It explained that the energy interruptions had affected the energy availability and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

The West African nation is presently governed by a army council under the leadership of General Goïta, who assumed authority in a military overthrow in recently.

The military government had widespread approval when it assumed control, committing to deal with the long-running security crisis caused by a separatist rebellion in the north by the Tuareg population, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and European soldiers had been stationed in 2013 to address the growing rebellion.

Both have departed since the junta took over, and the military government has employed foreign fighters to tackle the insecurity.

Nevertheless, the jihadist insurgency has continued and extensive regions of the northern and eastern territories of the country remain not under administrative command.