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Mali has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity caused by a restriction on fuel imports implemented by Islamist insurgents.

The Education Minister stated on national broadcast that all education institutions would be inactive until November 9th, explaining that the movement of employees and learners had been affected by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “making every effort” to alleviate the crisis so that classes could resume on November 10th.

For weeks, the nation has been experiencing a fuel shortage, especially in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a embargo by attacking fuel trucks on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Ivory Coast.

Long queues have been snaking around gas pumps in the main city in recent weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now apparently grown silent.

The ruling military council had in recent days promised citizens that it was only a temporary issue, but the emergency has continued.

In the past few days, the United States diplomatic office in the capital stated that secondary diplomatic employees and their relatives would evacuate the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and growing safety issues.

It explained that the petroleum supply issues had impacted the power distribution and had the “capacity to affect” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

Mali is now led by a army council headed by General Goïta, who took control in a coup in recently.

The ruling council had widespread approval when it took power, vowing to address the ongoing instability triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by the Tuareg population, which was then co-opted by Islamist militants.

The international UN troops and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have departed since the new administration came in, and the ruling council has hired private military contractors to combat the insecurity.

Nonetheless, the jihadist insurgency has endured and significant areas of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.