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Mali has temporarily halted schools and higher learning institutions countrywide due to a critical fuel scarcity resulting from a embargo on petroleum supplies enforced by militant groups.

The Education Minister announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, clarifying that the travel of employees and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the administration were “working tirelessly” to alleviate the emergency so that educational activities could restart on the tenth of November.

For weeks, the nation has been facing a petrol crisis, notably in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a blockade by targeting fuel trucks on primary roads.

The country is surrounded by land, so all petroleum products are delivered by road from bordering countries such as Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been forming around fuel outlets in the capital in the past few weeks, and the city's normally bustling streets have now reportedly fallen quiet.

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

Recently, the US Embassy in the capital stated that non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives would leave the country amid the worsening petrol scarcity and escalating protection worries.

It noted that the energy interruptions had impacted the supply of electricity and had the “capacity to affect” the overall security situation in unforeseen manners.

Mali is currently ruled by a armed forces administration under the leadership of Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The ruling council had popular support when it took power, vowing to tackle the ongoing instability triggered by a independence uprising in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by extremist groups.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been stationed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

The international troops have left since the new administration came in, and the military government has hired private military contractors to address the instability.

Nevertheless, the militant uprising has persisted and significant areas of the northern and eastern zones of the state remain outside government control.