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Mali has closed educational facilities and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a severe fuel scarcity triggered by a embargo on energy resources implemented by Islamist insurgents.

Top education official stated on state television that all learning centers would remain closed until 9 November, noting that the travel of employees and students had been disrupted by the blockade.

He asserted that the authorities were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that academic sessions could restart on November 10th.

For a number of weeks, the nation has been grappling with a petrol crisis, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by targeting transport vehicles on key routes.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all energy resources are brought in by road from adjacent nations such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been winding around fuel outlets in Bamako in the last several days, and the city's typically busy streets have now allegedly fallen quiet.

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

Last week, the American diplomatic mission in Bamako stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their dependents would evacuate Mali amid the deteriorating fuel shortage and growing protection worries.

It explained that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the broader protection environment in unexpected forms.

Mali is presently governed by a military junta led by General Goïta, who assumed authority in a takeover in two years ago.

The military government had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis triggered by a independence uprising in the north by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been sent in previously to deal with the growing rebellion.

The international troops have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has hired Russian mercenaries to combat the insecurity.

However, the militant uprising has continued and significant areas of the north and east of the state remain beyond state authority.