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The landlocked West African country has closed schools and higher learning institutions throughout the country due to a acute petrol shortage caused by a blockade on energy resources implemented by militant groups.

Top education official announced on national broadcast that all academic facilities would be inactive until 9 November, explaining that the movement of personnel and pupils had been impacted by the blockade.

He emphasized that the government officials were “working tirelessly” to end the emergency so that educational activities could continue on 10 November.

For a number of weeks, Mali has been grappling with a fuel shortage, particularly in the capital Bamako, after insurgents from an jihadist network initiated a restriction by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali is surrounded by land, so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighboring states such as its western neighbor and Côte d'Ivoire.

Extended lines have been snaking around fuel outlets in the main city in the past few weeks, and the city's usually crowded streets have now reportedly grown silent.

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

In the past few days, the US Embassy in Bamako announced that non-critical embassy personnel and their families would depart Mali amid the worsening fuel shortage and growing security concerns.

It said that the fuel disruptions had impacted the energy availability and had the “ability to disturb” the general safety conditions in unexpected forms.

The West African nation is now led by a army council led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who took control in a coup in two years ago.

The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to address the protracted safety emergency triggered by a autonomy movement in the northern territories by Tuareg communities, which was then taken over by Islamist militants.

The United Nations stabilization force and France's military had been stationed in a decade ago to combat the growing rebellion.

Both have withdrawn since the military assumed power, and the ruling council has employed private military contractors to address the violence.

Nonetheless, the Islamist rebellion has endured and large parts of the northern and eastern territories of the nation remain beyond state authority.